Various

THE BEST OF SWEDISH MUSIC IN 2025

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

An introduction from JC……..

I’ve checked the archives, and this is the ninth time that Martin has offered up a January post looking back over the previous year in Swedish music.  It’s always a treat, and particularly so this time around.   I’ll let him explain.

Hi Jim,

It’s the time of the year, isn’t it, to hand over my as usual incomplete summary of new Swedish music from last year. About a year ago I confessed to have dived more into electronic music and then divided the compilation into an indie side and an electronic side. Well 2025 saw me get stuck in the podcast Blå Måndag (Blue Monday), basically about new Swedish electronic music which means this year there are even more electronic releases I discovered. So this time I start with the electronic side and it kind of slips into the second side as well as there are too many tracks for just one album side (I’m imagining an old-fashioned vinyl album as you might have guessed).

Let’s get to it then.

The A-Side (Swedes are electric!)

A1. The Brides Of The Black Room – One Of Flash Of Light (From the album Commander)

Dark, swirling, synthpop verging on darkwave from this Stockholm based artistic collective. Would fair well on the dance floor of a goth club. Frankly quite excellent if you ask me.

A2. D4rkstar – Becomes Venom (From the EP Dawns)

Gothenburg based one man electronic/post-punk project, with a similar mood as The Brides Of The Black Room just slightly more post-punk. Becomes Venom draws influences from early New Order, somewhere between Movement and Brotherhood.

A3. EMMON – Shades Of Blue (From the album Icon)

EMMON is officially the solo moniker of Emma Nylén, however producer, mixer, and partner Jimmy Monell (EMMON = EMma + MONell) is every bit as important for the music. While Icon many a times borders on EBM and harder electronic stuff, Shades Of Blue has Construction Time Again poured all over it. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, or all that strange either, as Emma also provides vocals for the DM tribute band Paris. Both EMMON and Paris are great live acts, as electronic as they are.
(Shout out to SWC over at the equally excellent blog No Badger Required, to pay some attention at least for the use of only capital letters.)

A4. Lizette Lizette – No Turning Back (From the album LaQueer)

Lizette is a Swedish-Peruvian (queer) artist, and since their debut in 2016 have been cherished by Swedish music press and people in the know, but never really managed to break through to the mainstream audience. Which is a shame since this is really great danceable synthpop, albeit mostly with a message. Visually potentially challenging for the Smiths or the Joneses but we know better.

A5. White Birches – A New Reign (From the album A New Reign)

Stockholm based darkwave duo consisting of singer and guitarist Jenny Gabrielsson Mare and knob-tweaker Fredrik Jonasson. The title track is the most uplifting song, even though with a slightly darker message, on an album mostly painted in black and gray filled with loss and sadness. Dark, moody, at times low-key brooding, the album is not always an easy listening- but rewarding.

A6. Twice A Man – Second Field (From the album The Coloured Breeze Is A New Dimension)

Electronic veterans Twice A Man continues to churn out quality music. They started already in 1978 as Cosmic Overdose, in front of a short tour in the UK they were told the name wouldn’t fly and were given a list of proposals from the British arranger. They choose Twice A Man, and following good reviews in UK press after the shows they decided to stick with the name. For the most part during 1990 to 2010 they focused on music for theatres and art exhibitions, but with Icicles released in 2010 they returned to more (well) commercial music. Last year’s album is centred around nature, environment, and what we’re doing to this planet. As usual melodic tunes over a driving beat, I feel there is some kind of connection to the sea, the feeling of slow waves rolling. As they hail from Gothenburg on the west coast potentially not so strange.

The B-Side (Some Swedes are more indie than others)

B1. Henric De La Cour – Hey You, Hell No (From the album Your Bones, Your Ashes)

Henric has a history in indie bands Yvonne and Strip Music, since 2011 solo artist turning more electronic, darker, with slices of post-punk and goth in the mix. This track’s dark electronics has somewhat of an analogue feel to it which leads us on to the more guitar based tracks.

B2. Dag Och Natt – See-Through (From the album Years And Years)

Stockholm based dream-pop, shoegaze, outfit, delivered what I consider to be the best Swedish album of 2025. Would mid-80’s have been a perfect fit on the 4AD label. Mix some reverb with soaring angelic vocals floating over the melody, what not to love?

B3. Beverly Kills – Paloma Breath (From the album Wishing Well)

Hailing from Gothenburg, Beverly Kills are back with their sophomore album Wishing Well, their post-punk infused indie is very out of the Swedish west coast, just a tad more synths added and the odd mixture of almost euphoric music and rather bleak and sad lyrics. In all honesty they should have been included already last year as the first excellent single from the album, Sunset Drive, was released almost a year ahead.

B4. Honungsvägen – Ta Emot Mig (From the album Vet Du, Jag Älskar Dig. Kvar Här Med Dig, Kan Det Gå In?)

Winner of the first prize for longest album title… – and the only band on the compilation not based in Stockholm or Gothenburg, kind of sad. Umeå “supergroup” formed by Henrik Oja (also in Unroyal, and playing with Annika Norlin/Säkert!) with Christina Karlsson (also in INVSN) and Daniel Berglund (also in Isolation Years) released they eponymous debut in 2019 (easily one of the best Swedish debut albums ever) and last year finally saw a follow-up. In addition to the trio lyrics are also written with and by Annika Norlin and Mattias Alkberg, all Swedish indie royalty. Very Scandinavian melancholic, slightly folky, indie pop, sung in Swedish (sorry).

B5. Dag Och Natt – Årstaberg (From the album Years And Years)

I know, this is not supposed to be allowed, two tracks from the same album. But, as it happens to be my fave Swedish album of last year, and with a track named after a part of Stockholm where as it happens a certain, very important, person who came into my life last year, lives – it’s the given album closer. This is for you, P.

And as a bonus, from the most (on my part) overlooked Swedish album released in 2024.

It’s For Us – Sandy Beaches (From the album Out Of Time)

Hopefully something to enjoy!

All the best.

Martin

 

Craig Finn

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #404 : CRAIG FINN

A guest posting by Chaval

I’m too old for rock bands. That’s an (appropriately) bald statement but generally true. Those grand gesture, guitar-posing, pounding drum intro, crowd-pleasing singalong shows mostly leave me wishing I’d stayed at home with the LP instead.

So my relationship with all-American bar-band made good The Hold Steady is ambivalent. They have made some fabulous records, sensitive portrayals of losers, drugs, booze, sex and casualties in the Twin City conurbation where Minnesota abuts Wisconsin, with self-referential post-modern punk-goes-Springsteen soundtracks. Live though, it grates, a frat-boy crowd (the band calls their fans The Unified Scene, meh) bellowing along to a sound that loses its subtleties and lyrical insights, melds into bland roadhouse rawk.

Part of the problem is front man Craig Finn, who looks a little like the mid-point between George Costanza and Tony Soprano, an affable ironist who lacks the requisite Dionysian abandonment that characterises the most convincing rock stars.

He’s a great songwriter though. If the last few Hold Steady albums have been lacklustre, it may be because Finn’s creative skills have been diverted into a solo career that has headed off into more rarefied realms. He has a novelist’s eye for economic characterisation, a knack for gripping narratives, and the freedom to explore more interesting musical palettes. This ICA from his solo work might offer a few starting points.

Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son

Taken from Finn’s second solo LP Faith In The Future, it’s an everyday American tale of a guy and his family getting lured into a messianic cult involving drugs, firearms and sex slaves, before the Feds bust it open. “A kid went to the movies with a gun” is a chilling, evocative line and a story ripped straight from the US’s brutal news tickers.

It’s Never Been A Fair Fight

Taken from All These Perfect Crosses, a compilation of assorted demos and b-sides, this is a totally infectious romp through assorted injustices from local music scenes, romantic rejections, bad drugs and street violence, delivered by a guy with a “broken heart from 1989”.

The Amarillo Kid

From A Legacy Of Rentals from 2022, this is a jaunty account of a gamer kid looking for career opportunities and finding an opening in Buffalo’s lucrative but complicated narcotics retail industry. The bosses are generous with nicknames, less so when a fellow wants to branch out on his own . . .

Bethany

Always Been, from 2025, is Finn’s finest album to date, a loose concept work about a disgraced preacher trying to put his life back together. This is the sort-of-overture, with the character lying low and reflecting on fatal mistakes and alternative possibilities, with just enough time for a guest guitar solo before the law catches up.

Tangletown

We All Want The Same Things from 2017 is a compelling collection of vignettes of (mostly) ordinary people trying to survive. There’s a glimmer of hope in here if you choose to look. Damaged divorced guy into wine hooks up in a mutually agreeable, not-too-deep way with a waitress who enjoys the finer things in life.

No Future

From Finn’s 2012 solo debut Clear Heart Full Eyes, the singer struggles with nihilism and despair, buoyed up by an unlikely support network of Jesus, Freddie Mercury and Johnny Rotten, and ends up with a sideswipe at a place called the Riverside Perkins, that sounds like it’s not exactly a gastropub.

God In Chicago

The sort-of title track from We All Want The Same Things. Spoken word narratives (a la Willy Vlautin’s Richmond Fontaine) are a Finn forte. There are several strong candidates in that genre for inclusion here, but this might be the most devastating, tracing the familial fallout from a youthful dealer’s demise. It’s also an unlikely romantic ballad.

Rescue Blues

We All Want The Same Things is about how we all get by in different ways. So when a guy owes money to some dangerous sorts, rescue and refuge come in the form of widow Jamie and her apartment with a balcony and a giant TV. This probably isn’t going to end well, but for now it’s pretty pure.

Clayton

The anti-hero confessional from Always Been, it’s one of those lovely intimate acoustic songs where you can hear the fingers sliding over the frets, like you are sitting three feet away, and the tasteful, discreet string section is lurking in the shadows. This gets better with every listen.

A Break From The Barrage

Hey, we’ve all done it: called in sick with a hangover and headed out to the multiplex with a half-bottle in the pocket. The sweet backing vocals on this Legacy of Rentals highlight really hammer home a woozy tale of a mildly desperate suburban existence of bar-rooms and bills and regrettable hook-ups.

 

chaval

 

JC adds…………………

Until picking these up via chaval’s superb ICA, I had just the one track by Craig Finn on the hard drive, and thought it might make for a nice bonus track today.

Heads Roll Off

It’s from 2019 and is Craig’s contribution to Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight. 

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#18: Coffee Table Song : Edwyn Collins (Demon Records, D1064 T, 1989)

The collapse of Elevation Records saw Alan McGee retreat back to Creation, and in doing so he provided a new home for two out of the three acts, Primal Scream and The Weather Prophets.  It’s been suggested in some quarters that the reason Edwyn Collins wasn’t offered a similar deal by McGee was that the two had a serious falling-out. Whatever the reason, it meant our hero was in a state of purgatory, with no label and no sign of interest in the UK.

Enter Tom Dokoupil, a Czech-born artist and musician who had been part of the German new wave scene in the early 80s and who later opened Whitehouse Studios in Köln and founded the record label Werk.  A long-time fan of Orange Juice, he invited Edwyn to his studio to record some songs, which is why he, and a number of his closest acquaintances including Roddy Frame and Dennis Bovell (among others), could be found in Germany at different times between February and April 1989.

There was more than enough material for an album as well as b-sides for any potential singles.   Tom Dokopuil had always been happy to have Werk Records become Edwyn’s new label, but was pragmatic enough when those who were running Demon Records, the London-based label founded back in 1980 by Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, got in touch to say they were also interested, to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.

It meant that Edwyn’s debut album, Hope and Despair, was released at the end of May 1989 in Germany on Werk and in the UK, under license, on Demon.  It was largely ignored, but that wasn’t too big a surprise given that, in the eyes of almost all the music media, be that the print press or those running radio stations, Edwyn was already the day before yesterday’s man.

The exception was Tim Nicholson, writing in Record Mirror, (the smallest of the four weekly UK music papers in the late 80s), who was happy to give it a four-star review:-

“Ridiculous as it may seem, Hope and Despair is Edwyn’s first solo album. More than four years after Orange Juice dried up, the shakiest voice in pop has done a few stretching exercises.  

Seven of the 14 songs on show have been sitting around for three years waiting recorded, but they sound no less fresh for their long shelf life. 

Country rock is the home base for the majority of the LP, Edwyn’s preoccupation for the melancholy tales of the hopeless male having difficulty in winning back the indifferent female suiting the style perfectly. The tunes (which is exactly what these are; real tunes) go immediately for familiarity, grabbing a catchy hook and tugging at it constantly.

More important than anything is that Edwyn makes a fab pop star and nothing could be nicer than seeing his sardonic comments back in the pages of Record Mirror. ‘Hope And Despair’ is a much better LP than could have been expected and will, in one fell swoop, put ‘Corny’ Collins back on the map.  All hope and no despair.”

The album didn’t make it into the Top 100 in the UK or Germany.  A couple of months later, the two labels decided to issue a single, but surprisingly went for a downbeat number, almost five minutes in length and with a waltz-like tempo.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Coffee Table Song

Werk issued it as a 7″ in Germany, while Demon went for a 12″ only release.

Coffee Table Song was the opening track on the album, so perhaps that was part of the logic.  Or maybe it was the one song Edwyn really wanted out there given that the lyric captures him in a reflective mood, perhaps pondering the events of the past couple of years and his continued misfortunes with the record industry:-

What is your number? My number is zero
And what is your colour? My colour is blue
What is your secret? Why that would be telling
Well what is your problem? My problem is you

I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something

What is your star sign? You’ve got to be kidding
Well what is the answer? I wish I knew
What is the time? It’s time I was leaving
Why what is your problem? My problem is you

I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something

Tell me something that I don’t know
Make it brief, to the point, like a fatal blow
Since time out of mind I have loved you so
There’s a place I know where we both could go
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there or be there, somewhere out there
Like a fatal blow, like an open sore
Like a heart that’s torn in two
That’s really something

There were two bits of music on the b-side of the 12″

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Judas In Blue Jeans
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out There

The first of them, which was also on the 7″, is a very upbeat number.  I think the few loyal fans who were buying things at this time, would have been surprised to hear a song that really should have made the cut for the album.  The latter is just 57 seconds in length, and it’s Edwyn just playing his guitar. I’ve never regarded it as a song, more a possible idea for working up into something else.

No shock that Coffee Table Song didn’t chart.

 

JC

James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #489: JAMES EDWYN & THE BORROWED BAND

From their Bandcamp page:-

“Glasgow sextet James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band stumbled on to the scene 2013, their formation the result of a series of unlikely coincidences… Their music is a mixmof alt-country, indie/folk rock and roots orientated Americana. 

They have released two critically acclaimed albums, THE TOWER (2014) and HIGH Fences (2018). They are currently working on a third studio album.

The above info is out off date as the third album, Highlights of The Low Nights, was released on Last Night From Glasgow back in 2022.

mp3: James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band – Gasoline

Americana is a tad out of my comfort zone, so let me turn to a more informed source, a Glasgow-based blog called Blabber ‘n’ Smoke which specialises in the subject matter and had this to say about the track I’ve offered up today:-

‘There’s a lot of Memphis swampiness flowing throughout the album, primarily via the keyboards. Gasoline, riding on top of a fine guitar groove and funky electric piano, opens the album in a stealth like manner, the tension gradually building as the song progresses, albeit with the band initially sounding as if they are riding on the slipstream of The Doors, circa LA Woman. Edwyn’s voice is perfectly complemented by the harmonies from Emma Joyce‘

For a full review of the album, please click here.

 

JC

 

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #8

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

Hail To The Chief

 

Jonny

JC adds………….

…………………and so say all of us!!??? (I sincerely hope so).

Another Sunny Day, Wolfhounds, Yeah Yeah Noh

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 2, 3 and 4 of 114)

First of all…..many thanks for the positive responses to the idea of this series.  It has to be said that not all the 114 songs that will be featured over the coming months  have aged well….and indeed a number of them were pretty awful to begin with, but then again taste is subjective!!!

Three more today, but thankfully all of them pass the litmus test here in Villain Towers.

Another Sunny Day was the name used by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Harvey Williams, who hails from Cornwall in the far south-west of England. He was one of the first to join the then fledgling, and later to become famous, Sarah Records, based in Bristol.  Between 1988 and 1992, he would release five singles on the label and one other for the Caff Corporation, a boutique label run by Bob Stanley, with each single usually getting a very limited run of around 500 copies. This was the debut:-

mp3: Anorak City – Another Sunny Day

Track 8, Disc 1 of CD86.

SARAH 3.  A flexidisc, released in April 1988 and given away with SARAH 4, a 22-page fanzine. Second-hand copies of Anorak City, if and when they appear on the market, go for upwards of £200.  Just as well, then, that the song has been included on a number of subsequent compilations.

Harvey Williams would later join The Field Mice, Blueboy and Trembling Blue Stars, all of whom were hugely popular bands on Sarah Records or its successor label, Shinkansen Recordings.  He also recorded two solo albums in the 90s.

Anorak City is a wonderful song, albeit, like many from the era, is of its time and place; but then again, that’s largely the entire point about TVV and particularly this series.  I’ll leave the discovery of new bands to others……(insert smiley face emoji!!!!!!!!!!!!).

 

Yeah Yeah Noh are from Leicester and were originally around between 1983 and 1986, before reforming in 2011.  The band was initially signed to In-Tape Records, a label from Sale, just outside of Manchester, which was owned and run by Marc Riley, best known at the time as a past member of The Fall.  The band and would go on to release five singles and one studio album and in 1984 and 1985.

mp3: Another Side To Mrs Quill – Yeah Yeah Noh

Track 2, Disc 2 of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

Their fourth single for In-Tape in 1985.  It reached #10 in the Indie singles chart.  The band, after reforming, would re-record the song in 2014.  I’ve had a listen to the update version over at their bandcamp page, and whisper it…..I prefer the 2014 recording, especially as some of the vocal delivery reminds me of Cathal Coughlan.

A few things to mention.  Yeah Yeah Noh were first mentioned on the blog last year, thanks to their inclusion on a guest compilation mix from Leon McDuff.  The band remain very much on the go, gigging and in the process of recording and releasing a new album. They are part of the line-up at the 2026 Leicester Indiepop Festival taking place on 28 February/1 March.

Oh, and Sale, the base for In-Tape Records, is also home to our great friend Adam, whose Bagging Area blog is an essential read on a daily basis.

 

The Wolfhounds are from Romford, on the outskirts of London, and were originally around between 1985 and 1990, before reforming in 2005.  The band was signed firstly to the London-based The Pink Label for whom there would be three singles and one album in 1986/87 before moving to Midnight Music, based in Watford, on the outskirts of London, with two singles and three albums across 1989-90.

They are one of a number of bands who will make more than one appearance in the series, and today’s offering is an absolute belter of a song.  It was their second single for The Pink Label, released in September 1986 and which would reach #6 in the Indie Charts.

mp3: The Anti-Midas Touch – The Wolfhounds

The Wolfhounds have released three studio albums since reforming, the most recent being in 2020.

JC

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : JANUARY 2026 : ‘ELECTRONIC BOY : MY LIFE IN AND OUT OF SOFT CELL’ by DAVID BALL

A book published in June 2020, but that I only got round to buying late last year after the death of its author.  Sorry, Dave.

Dave Ball was always portrayed as the quiet and unflamboyant half of Soft Cell, but there are plenty of anecdotes in his autobiography which will leave any reader in no doubt that he was often as much the party animal and hedonist as Marc Almond.  It really is quite the story, from his adoption at the age of 18 months by a childless couple from Blackpool (who would later adopt a second child and provide Dave with a sister), through to his 60th birthday celebrations in May 2019.  It’s quite unlike most autobiographies in that all bar one of its 52 chapters are in bite-size chunks, making it a very easy read from start to end in that you can pick it up whenever you’ve only a few minutes spare knowing that the tale will have moved along a bit further, not necessarily in time, but at least there will have been another enjoyable or enlightening snippet from Dave’s life.

I don’t think this is one of those occasions when the tale has been told with the aid of a ghostwriter.  The language throughout is consistently simple and unpretentious, written in a way as if Dave was sitting next to you in a bar or a coffee house or perhaps on a train, engaging in gentle conversation.  The only time that your eyes perhaps might glaze over is when he gets technical about the type of equipment used at a particular recording session or during a gig, but these are very few and far between – and besides, while that kind of thing does wash easily over me, I do realise there will be loads of folk genuinely interested in that sort of detail.

Dave’s upbringing was modest but not impoverished, and the early chapters of his childhood and early adolescence will, I reckon, strike a chord with many who had a similar upbringing in the 60s and 70s. His love of music takes off through listening to the radio, and attending underage discos during weekend afternoons at many of the famous clubs that Blackpool was home to during those decades when it was the summer holiday destination of choice for working-class families.  He was one of those whose tastes in music were constantly evolving from an early age, none of which he ever totally discarded and all of which would come to play some part or other in his career.

Like many of that generation, Dave took the opportunity on leaving school to embrace further education, heading to Leeds Polytechnic to study Fine Art, which is where he met and befriended Marc Almond.  Both of them enjoyed life to the full, finding they had a great deal in common, and deciding, in 1979, to form an electronic band, just at the perfect time in pop music history.  Soft Cell never started out as an act that had an eye on the pop charts, as can be evidenced by some of the early recordings.  But Dave Ball just happened to be one of those people who had a gift for making all sorts of music, adapting very quickly to the technological advances of the day, while Marc just had the self-belief that he’d be a star in some shape or form.

Marc was 24 and David was 22 when their lives changed forever in 1981 through their take on Tainted Love, an up till then fairly obscure Northern Soul record.  The pace of life proved to be exhausting, and by 1984 it was seemingly all over.  The book goes on to describe 1984-1988 as ‘The Wilderness Years’, but the chapter is in fact one of the most enlightening and provides a great context as to how Dave Ball was always destined to make music, most often in partnership with others. His later collaboration with Richard Norris as The Grid is well-told, and leads nicely into the period when David found a new lease of life on the production side of things.

The Soft Cell reunions and comebacks (2000-2004 and then 2018 up until the book’s publication) are the basis for the closing chapters, with it ending on a very optimistic note given that the duo were writing songs again and a new album was in the works, albeit it took until May 2022 before it was released.  Prior to this, in late 2021, there has been a triumphant and sold-out tour across the UK, during which many of these new songs were aired alongside all the hits and everything recorded for Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret as the tour was commemorating that album’s 40th anniversary.

Dave Ball didn’t enjoy great health in his later years, but it was still a shock hearing that he passed away, at the age of 66, last October, shortly after work had been completed on another Soft Cell album, which will be called Danceteria, due for release later in 2026.  The good people involved with Soft Cell have also indicated that work is underway on an update of Electronic Boy, drawing on Dave’s notes over six years since it was first published and featuring new interviews and contributions from many who he worked with across what was a fabulous career.  It’s one to look forward to.

mp3: Soft Cell – Memorobilia (Ecstatic Version)

Track 1 of Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing, the June 1982 mini-album release consisting mainly of remixes of songs from Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Contains a rap from Cindy Ecstacy, the New York party girl whom Marc and David befriended and who later sang on the single Torch, as well as appearing in the video.

 

JC

Kate Bush

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #403 : KATE BUSH

A guest posting by The Robster

I’m not sure there’s much I can write about Kate Bush that could ever do her justice. Quite frankly, she’s one of the greatest musical talents that walked the earth. I’m not going to qualify that statement. There’s no need. Those who disagree are nothing to me.

I do accept, however, that there are many people who are not overly familiar with her work. I mean, everyone knows a few of Kate’s biggest and best known songs, but in terms of her albums, they remain something of a mystery to most.

To put right a clear (and I’m sure unintentional) wrong – that there is a glaring lack of Kate Bush posts on this otherwise wonderful site – I’ve compiled an ICA of deep cuts (no singles) from Kate’s studio albums (plus a b-side) in chronological order. Hopefully, those of you who think you love Kate but can’t profess to knowing a whole lot of her stuff other than the big hits will gain a Deeper Understanding of her work and investigate further. For everyone else, those of us who adore her, well we can just revel in her genius for 45 glorious minutes and argue over what tracks should have been included over those that actually were.

Deeper Understanding : A Kate Bush ICA for the (new) vinyl villain

SIDE ONE

1. Them Heavy People (1978, from ‘The Kick Inside’)

My no-singles rule could face a challenge right from the off. Them Heavy People was a standout from Kate’s astonishing debut album, but though it wasn’t actually released as a single in the UK, it was in Japan. It was also the lead track on the live EP ‘On Stage’ the following year, but the album version counts for the purposes of this article, and it’s long been a fan fave, so there!

2. Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake (1978, from ‘Lionheart’)

A live version of this one also featured on the ‘On Stage’ EP. Kate’s second album came out the same year as her debut, and perhaps suffers because of it. It has some excellent stuff on it, but it isn’t considered in the same league as what came before it. Or after it, for that matter. Heartbrake perhaps should have been the single instead of Hammer Horror.

3. Violin (1980, from ‘Never For Ever’)

Kate had been writing songs for years before her first single, and aged just 15, she recorded a number of them on a simple tape recorder while at the piano. Two of those earliest songs, Babooshka and Violin, weren’t recorded properly until her third album. The latter of these is a highlight from ‘Never For Ever’, an album that begun some of the experimentation she furthered on her next couple of releases.

4. Get Out Of My House (1982, from ‘The Dreaming’)

Kate refers to ‘The Dreaming’ as her “I’ve gone mad album”. It was her first entirely self-produced record, and it’s fair to say it baffled critics and much of her audience with its far-from-conventional instrumentation and arrangements. Over time, though, it has become an essential part of her discography. It’s my favourite of all her albums, probably because of its weirdness. It does get rather intense in places, none more so than on Get Out Of My House, the album’s closing track, in which Kate drew inspiration from Stephen King’s novel ‘The Shining’.

5. Under Ice (1985, from ‘Hounds Of Love’)

Basically, if you’ve never heard ‘Hounds Of Love’, then why are you even here? It’s Kate’s ‘Rumours’, her ‘Automatic For The People’, her ‘Nevermind’. It’s the one everyone knows, or at the very least, the one everyone claims they know. Aside from THAT song – which is fast becoming the latest in a long line of great songs we’re becoming completely sick of hearing (thanks, social media) – it’s one of her finest sets, and is perhaps a more focussed follow-up to ‘The Dreaming’ in that it continues the experimental approach (Side 2 in particular), but doesn’t jump from style to style like its predecessor. Under Ice forms part of ‘The Ninth Wave’, essentially the suite of songs about the fear of drowning that make up side 2.

6. Rocket’s Tail (1989, from ‘The Sensual World’)

Compared to her previous couple of albums, ‘The Sensual World’ was in many ways a more conventional record. That’s not to say it was any less interesting. Many of the songs are influenced by the James Joyce novel ‘Ulysses’. Rocket’s Tail totally blows me away whenever I hear it. It features Bulgarian vocal group Trio Bulgarka, and sounds absolutely incredible.

SIDE TWO

7. Ken (1990, b-side of Love And Anger; from the Comic Strip Film ‘GLC: The Carnage Continues’)

There are those who think musicians like Kate take themselves far too seriously. As if to completely disprove that theory, Kate teamed up with the comedy outfit The Comic Strip. She appeared as The Bride in Les Dogs and while she didn’t have many lines, she had plenty of screen time. I’m sure I’m not the only straight bloke who saw Les Dogs and melted at the sight of her… Kate also provided two brand-new songs to the soundtrack of another episode entitled GLC: The Carnage Continues. Ken is about the show’s anti-hero Ken Livingstone (played by Robbie Coltrane playing Charles Bronson playing Livingstone…) and his rise to leader of the Greater London Council. She portrays him in the song as he is in the show – the one man who can ultimately overthrow and kill the evil Ice Maiden, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Jennifer Saunders as Brigitte Nielsen…)! It’s a lot of fun, though sadly only fiction…

8. Why Should I Love You? (1993, from ‘The Red Shoes’)

The three years following ‘The Sensual World’ were traumatic for Kate. First her guitarist Alan Murphy passed away, then her mother. She also split from her long-term partner. You’d have forgiven her for taking a break, or if her next record was going to be a more downbeat affair. But instead, ‘The Red Shoes’ was a triumph and was lauded by the critics. There were guest appearances a-plenty, including Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Nigel Kennedy. Why Should I Love You? features Trio Bulgarka again, plus Prince, whose presence is most definitely felt in the chorus. Apparently, comedian Lenny Henry is in there too…

9. ∏ (2005, from ‘Aerial’)
Kate did take that break after ‘The Red Shoes’ and wouldn’t emerge again for 12 years. When she did, it was with something incredible and unexpected – a double album. Even more unexpected was her homage to ∏ (pi) in which she recites the number to its first 78 decimal places (then, oddly, from its 101st to its 137th). Look, I’m not going to question her obvious genius, I’m just so pleased she did it because, let’s face it, who else would?

10. 50 Words For Snow (2011, from ’50 Words For Snow’; featuring Stephen Fry)

It was another 6 years before Kate followed up ‘Aerial’, and it was with not one, but TWO albums. Firstly, ‘Director’s Cut’ featured analogue re-recordings of tracks from ‘The Sensual World’ and ‘The Red Shoes’, which were both digitally recorded to Kate’s regret. The second record of 2011 was particularly audacious though – seven songs sprawling across a double-album set lasting more than 65 minutes, “set against a background of falling snow”. It was nothing less than we expected from her, and once again it wowed the critics. The title track features the great Stephen Fry in character as Professor Joseph Yupik, rising to Kate’s challenge of citing 50 snow-related words and phrases. What’s not to love?

And that’s the last we’ve heard from Kate, at least in terms of new material. It’s been more than 14 years, yet somehow she remains remarkably relevant. A new record would be nice, a thing of wonder and joy I’m sure, at a time when the world desperately needs it. But until then, here’s a couple of things you may not have heard before to tide you over…

SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION BONUS 7”

Remember I mentioned Kate’s home demo recordings when I was talking about Violin? She was just 15/16 when she sat at her piano and recorded 23 songs to a cassette tape. This tape found its way to family friend David Gilmour who secured a studio session to professionally record the demo that ended up getting Kate signed. Only a handful of those original 23 songs were eventually done over and put out on her albums, the rest of them have never been officially released. They have been bootlegged though, and I’m lucky enough to have them in that form. So, as a special sign off from me, here’s a couple of practically unheard Kate songs performed by the precocious teenager at home in 1974.

1. Never The Less
2. Coming Up

The Robster

JC adds…..

By coincidence, a Kate Bush song appeared on the blog yesterday, courtesy of FFF’s guest offering.   Chaval asked if this had been Kate’s first appearance on the blog…not quite, as each of Wuthering Heights, the On-Stage EP and Wow have featured (November 2019, January 2017 and May 2016 respectively).

Various

SONGS FOR PYSCHOSIS

A guest posting by flimflamfan

Songs for Psychosis is intended as a mechanism that gets one through the day – gorgeous, uplifting, heartbreaking music.

These songs can be supplanted by oh so many other songs, so many bands but for now this selection serves its purpose.

Think of it as a compilation rather than an ICA.

Cranes – Driving in the Sun
Bowie  – Silly Boy Blue
Jesus Loves You – Bow Down Mister
Yazoo – Too Pieces
This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
Janis Joplin –  Little Girl Blue
Humdrum – Superbloom
Dead Can Dance  – Saldek
Cocteau Twins – Sugar Hiccup
Gene – Speak To Me Someone
Breakfast Muff – R U A Feminist
Sonics  – Psycho
The Seekers – I’ll Never Find Another You
Blancmange – Sad Day
Kate Bush – Moments of Pleasure
Just Joans – No Longer Young Enough
Associates – Party Fears Two
Alvvays – Forget About Life

flimflamfan

 

JC adds…….

FFF is not only one of the most active supporters of this blog  – he holds a record that will unlikely ever be surpassed, namely the number of comments he has submitted over the years – but he has, in recent years become a close and dear friend following our introduction via someone we both knew.

There was an email attached to this guest posting, one that made me feel quite sad and quite worried about my friend. He’s going through a very tough time just now, and I want to wish him well.  I hope the fact I’ve been able to get this post up so quickly after it came in can be of some help to him today.  Take good care, amigo…..and stay strong.

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#17: My Beloved Girl : Edwyn Collins (Elevation Records, ACID 6/WEA 248 138-7, 1987)

The second and what proved to be the final single for Elevation Records was released in the last week of October 1987.

Although not similar in sound, it was a single on which the team involved in What Presence?! were reunited as Phil Thornalley was brought in as producer.  There’s also other musicians credited, including Dave Ruffy (ex Aztec Camera) on drums, Tim Holmes on sax and Dave Clayton (who much later in 2003 would join Simply Red) on synth.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – My Beloved Girl

My Beloved Girl is an out-and-out pop song, very much of its time and place, as evidenced by the use of backing singers George Chandler, Jimmy Chambers and Lee Vanderbilt. It’s all a bit ‘meh’ in the wider context of what had come before and what would come in later years, but given that WEA were, by now, desperate for Elevation Record to deliver some sort of big hit single, it’s no real surprise this was the road which everyone chose to go down.

The b-side is another which has a real 80s feel in terms of production, but with it never being remotely considered as a possible single, there’s a little more of Edwyn’s vocal being straightforward, and he gets to play his guitar solo in the style to what we had become accustomed.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Clouds (Fogging Up My Mind)

As usual, there was a 12″ release as well as a 7″.  The larger disc offered the same version of My Beloved Girl along with extended versions of both sides of the 7″:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – My (Long Time) Beloved Girl
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Clouds (Fogging Up My Mind) – Cumulonimbus Version

Years ago, I had to look up ‘Cumulonimbus’ as I had no idea how it fitted into this single – turns out they are the types of clouds that can lead to thunderstorms and tornadoes.  Every day is a school day……

The extended version of My Beloved Girl is a bit of a chore while the extended version of Clouds, which stretches to over seven minutes in length, feels as if Edwyn and Phil just wanted to experiment a bit in the studio, and given WEA were bankrolling it, why not?

There was a bit of a marketing push on this one, and a week or so after the initial release, a box version was issued.  This contained a 7″ EP, with the two sides of the single alongside two previously unreleased songs, and three postcards, all of which had a photo of Edwyn on one side while the other sides had the lyrics or the forthcoming dates for a UK tour in November/December 1987 dates or was left blank.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue (acoustic version)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – What’s The Big Idea?

The former is a guitar/harmonica/bass guitar rendition of a tune that would later get a full band treatment and be released as a single in 1989, and also included on the album Hope and Despair (watch this space).  The latter would be re-recorded a few years later and included on the 1990 album, Hellbent on Compromise…..you can see that Edwyn has long had an interesting way of naming his albums to reflect his differing states of mind.

My Beloved Girl did a bit better than Don’t Shilly Shally, in that it charted (as such) for three weeks at #87, #84 and #99.

 

JC

Isa & The Filthy Tongues

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #488: ISA & THE FILTHY TONGUES

#468 in this series told the tale of The Filthy Tongues.  Click here for a reminder!

The three members of The Filthy Tongues are Fin Wilson, Martin Metcalfe and Derek Kelly.  Back between 2005 and 2014, they were known as Isa & the Filthy Tongues, when their vocalist was the American-born Stacey Chavis with two albums Addiction (2006) and Dark Passenger (2014) being released.

Here’s a fine track from the debut album

mp3: Isa and The Filthy Tongues – Dreamcatcher

If the internet is accurate, it appears that Stacey Chavis is still living and working in Edinburgh as a yoga teacher and therapist.

 

JC

 

Beck

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (30) : Beck – Loser

The backstory to the recording and release of Loser is a fascinating one.

Beck Hansen is invited to the home studio of Los Angeles-based producer Carl Stephenson and just over six hours later the duo had created a classic thanks to a slide-guitar riff (played by Beck) being looped onto an 8-track, to which was added a hip-hop beat, a bit of sitar (played by Stephenson) and a self-deprecating lyric, much of it made up on the spot, including the ‘I’m A Loser Baby, So Why Don’t You Kill Me? refrain which Beck came up with having heard and then thinking his attempt to rap during the session was dreadful.

500 copies were pressed up and released, on 8 March 1993, by Bong Load Records. The song gets picked up by local college radio stations and gradually makes its way to similar stations up and down the West Coast, before some of the larger Californian commercial stations begin to play it regularly.  New York was next to latch onto it, with a copy being passed to someone who worked for Geffen Records whose executives then persuaded Beck to allow Loser to be reissued via its DGC subsidiary in January 1994.

mp3: Beck – Loser

DGC put it out on CD and cassette, while Bong Load, having retained the American rights to release Beck’s songs on vinyl, re-pressed the 12-inch single in larger quantities than before. Within a matter of weeks, Loser was Top 10 on the Billboard Chart in America and by the end of February, it had also gone Top 20 in the UK and most European countries.

I had long believed that here in the UK the single had only been made available via CD and cassette, but there does seem to have been a limited number pressed up on vinyl as a joint release by DGC and Bong Load, with the b-sides being different from these which can be found on the CD.

The extra tracks on the CD are all lo-fi in nature, reflecting the sort of music that Beck had been making in the years prior to becoming ‘an overnight success’

mp3: Beck – Totally Confused
mp3: Beck – Corvette Bummer
mp3: Beck – MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack (Lounge Version)

The third of the extra tracks is a different version of an earlier 7″ single that had been released by Beck on Flipside Records, based in Pasadena.  It was a split effort with a power-pop trio called Bean, with both acts contributing two songs.  Copies of that single now fetch very decent sums of money on the second-hand market.

JC

Liaisons Dangereuses

THE CULT CLASSICS : THE RE-RUNS (1)

December 2013.  A new, and what proved to be a short-lived but reasonably popular series was launched on the blog.

I invited members of the TVV to offer up contributions on what they regarded as their favourite cult single. I left the definition as wise as possible, but suggested that it ideally should be a 45 that had been released on an indie-label, from a band or singer who never enjoyed mainstream success and was a piece of music that, in a parallel universe, would have been a smash hit and made a fortune for the composer and/or performer(s).

All the subsequent suggestions proved to be fantastic, and having late last year read over them again, I thought it would be an idea to bring all 14 of them out of deep-freeze over the coming weeks and months.  The first to come forward was our dear friend Dirk, and this was published on 22 December 2013.

– – – – –

Hello friends,

Liaisons Dangereuses just made one record, but, good Lord, what a record it was, to be sure! To me, it pretty neatly sums up the definition of ‘cult’.

Also, the band (and the record) match the other requirements: “(…) released on an indie-label, from a band or singer who never enjoyed mainstream success and is a piece of music that in a parallel universe would have been a smash hit and made a fortune for the composer and/or performer(s).”

Liaisons Dangereuses were founded in 1981 by Berlin’s Beate Bartel and Chrislo Haas, who, before Liaisons Dangereuses, already worked together under the moniker of CHBB. CHBB released four cassettes, untitled, limited to 50 copies, each 10 minutes long. I have never heard one of those, and you haven’t either, I guess. But not to worry, the record in question is by Liaisons Dangereuses, not by CHBB.

Liaisons Dangereuses released a self-titled album in 1981, which – again – I never heard (you probably might have done so though, congratulations) on TIS Records in Germany and Roadrunner Records in the Netherlands. One song from said album was released as a 7” and a 12”, but this time only on Roadrunner Records. Never heard of TIS Records? Roadrunner Records? Perfect: in compliance with the first requirement!

Beate Bartel formerly played with Einstürzende Neubauten and also Mania D (“My Queens of Noise”, as John Peel styled them back then) whereas Chrislo Haas was a founding member of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (or DAF, if you’d rather) and Der Plan, but also played together with Minus Delta  and Crime & The City Solution. Back in those days he was known as t.h.e. German synthesizer guru. German readers of a certain age will most probably be aware of his genius, the rest of you might still know the synthesizer line in DAF’s ‘Der Mussolini’ … that’s this bloke, y’know ….

I don’t know exactly what Beate Bartel is earning currently, she’s doing some experimental art performance projects. I’m sure you agree with me that these things tend not to make you rich rich rich or enable a shopping-topless-in-Biarritz sort of lifestyle and thus don’t really lead to mainstream success … and Chrislo Haas drank himself to death with 47 years in 2004 anyway, so: second requirement fulfilled as well!

The record in question, at least as far as I can tell, never hit the “big” charts back in the days. But in Germany it was a dancefloor filler (@ any underground club with at least a bit of taste in music anyway) throughout all of the Eighties. Also, so I read quite a while ago, the techno scene as well in Detroit as in Chicago seem to have fancied it when they started up. For me it isn’t techno though, then again I am way too old to differentiate between all these dance things anyway. It is a very fine mixture between EBM, Postpunk and New Wave perhaps … then again who gives a fuck for those definitions in the first place, right?

One thing’s for sure: any inhabitant of a parallel universe who doesn’t normally listen to U2 would dance to it like mad (or whatever you do instead of dancing in parallel universes) … and enjoy the tune mightily whilst doing so. So there you go: third requirement also met!

So here’s to you an iconic classic from 1981, friends, a cult record in the truest sense of the word, at least for me: eins-zwei-drei-vier and ….. enjoy!

mp3 : Liasons Dangereuses – Los Ninos Del Parque

(JC adds…………this one was totally new to me. And it is highly highly highly recommended!!!)

Take good care,

Dirk from Sexyloser

PS from JC……

Anyone who wants to submit a fresh nomination and get a new series of cult classics underway later in the year is more than welcome. Usual address as found at the side or underneath the blog, depending on what piece of technology you use to read it.

 

Sparks

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (41) : Sparks – Amateur Hour

I would have just turned 11 years of age when Amateur Hour, the second Top 10 hit for Sparks in 1974 was being played on the radio and then most likely beamed into our homes via Top Of The Pops.  But it turns out that Sparks never got the opportunity to perform Amateur Hour on the telly here in the UK  as there was industrial action at the BBC during the summer of 1974, with the strikes leading to several editions of the show being cancelled and planned performances called off.  I’d like to think that Russell and Ron would have never crossed any picket line in any instance…….

As such you’ll have to make do with footage from a similar type of pop show for Belgian audiences:-

I reckon Sparks were the first weird looking band that I really took notice of in as much that Ron Mael creeped me (and I reckon millions of others)everyone out with his on-stage persona.  Turned out it really was all an act, and he is a very funny, charming man with a great sense of humour.

I’d love to claim that I somehow bought this in 1974, but I’d be lying.  Many decades later, I came across a decent enough copy in a second-hand store for the princely sum of 50p, and so had no hesitation in grabbing it and rushing across to the counter.

mp3: Sparks – Amateur Hour

I was also delighted in later years to learn that the song was a favourite of John Hunt, the lead singer of Butcher Boy, as he was happy to play it in his role as DJ at the unforgettable Little League nights that so often livened up my weekends back in the day.  John is quite a few years younger than me, and I’ve often wondered how he was ever exposed to its delights.

This was your b-side:-

mp3: Sparks – Lost And Found

A genuine b-side not made available on any album until the 2006 CD re-issue of Kimono My House, when a few bonus tracks were added.

Amateur Hour reached #7 in the singles chart.

 

 

JC

 

Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #402 : TOP MUSICAL TIPS FOR 2026

A guest posting by swc

JC adds……………………………..

I don’t normally feature two ICAs in the same week, never mind on consecutive days, but this one, which arrived unexpectedly just a few days ago, given that the author was no doubt dealing with the after-effects of a particularly violent snowstorm, does have degree of urgency about it, given what it is covering.   And with that, I hand over to our correspondent from the south-west of England.

An ICA of Top Musical Tips for 2026.

Many years ago (ok it was 2008), the parents of a friend mine rented a big old house on the edge of Exmoor for a fortnight over the Christmas period. It was a lovely place, six bedrooms spread across two floors, a huge kitchen, triple glazed fire and bomb proof windows and on the top floor (the third) was something called the ‘Party Zone’.
In that ‘Party Zone’ we partied, sort of. We played some old records from our time at university and watched some football on the massive television whilst gorging ourselves on Doritos and a delightful home-made guacamole. As we tired of that, my friend, lets called him Matthew, largely because it’s his name, asked me, what my top musical recommendation for the coming year was, and I said with barely a moment’s pause to actually think about it,

“Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. They will be the biggest band in the land this time next year”

Which on reflection was a terrible answer (trust me if you’ve never heard Joe Lean and his sodding Jing Jang Jong, you really aren’t missing much) because Joe Lean and his sodding Jing Jang Jong faded into obscurity faster than the person who came 12th on X Factor in 2008.

Ever since that moment, I have run away as fast as possible when people ask me for my Musical Tips for the year ahead.

Welcome then, to an ICA made up of ten bands and acts that I think will probably be (some of) the biggest bands in the land this time next year. Or ten bands and acts that (some of) will be as famous as Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong are this time next year – if they become world-famous and change your lives for the good, you can credit me accordingly but if their next album or single or whatever stinks the place out then I will deny that I ever said anything.

Oh, by the way, this document is officially the most times that Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have ever been mentioned in any document anywhere and that includes the NME written guide “A Short guide to the brilliant whizz pop world of Joe Lean and his Jing Jang Jong”.

Side One

MORN – Modern Man (2025, Speedy Wunderground, Single)

Regular readers to my so-called music blog No Badger Required will know that I go a bit giddy when bands appear and insist on using capital letters in their name. So, I have to start side one of this ICA with MORN. MORN are from Wales and ‘Modern Man’ is so far their only release. They make a sort of punky and jagged sound that is full of massive guitar hooks and dynamic vocals and they are a very exciting prospect.

Shaking Hand – Over The Coals (2025, Melodic Records, Single)

The music of Shaking Hand is mostly steeped in that post rock world, where songs slowly build before exploding like a musical firework that takes them off in different directions. Shaking Hand do this very well indeed, their bass lines are tight but grow into a many tentacled beasts, whilst their guitars chime but only when they absolutely have to.

Night Swimming – Freight Train (2025, Venn Records, Single)

If I was writing this in 1985, and I’d just heard Night Swimming for this first time I would have run straight down to my local turf accountants and bet the entire pension on Night Swimming being signed to 4AD Records. They make music that is a whirl of reverb, shivery vocals, tinkling cymbals and waves of gentle feedback. It’s not quite Cocteau Twins, but it would definitely dress up as one of them should the opportunity arise. File under very good.

She’s In Parties – Same Old Story (2025, Submarine Cat Records taken from ‘Are You Dreaming? EP)

Hot on the heels of Night Swimming (see above) come She’s In Parties. They are also named after a song but also make music that sounds like they should have been signed to 4AD Records thirty-seven years ago, and again this is no bad thing at all. Musically, She’s In Parties are all dreamy soundscapes, vocal reverb and guitars that will almost certainly sound better when accompanied by an overactive smoke machine.

Vegas Water Taxi – Brat Summer (2025, PNKSLM Records, Single)

There is something rather special about London’s alt country slacker rock band Vegas Water Taxi. For a start there is the way in which singer Ben Hambro croons in a way that sounds like he has gone to confession but ended up turning it into a total bitching session. Then you have Ben’s lyrics, which are self mocking, funny, occasionally filthy but nearly always warm-hearted. Set amongst all that you have the music, which lurches between post punk and alt country slacker rock that reminds me of Pavement if they were fronted by Dan Treacy from the Television Personalities.

Side Two

The Pill – Money Mullet (2025, Lilot Records, Single)

The Pill are great. Their songs are sharp, loud and swagger with the knowledge that they possess something that will smack you in the face with the power of a bull who has been mainlining amphetamines. That sharpness and swaggering brilliance has seen the band grow amidst a swirl of hype and expectations.

SILVERWINGKILLER – Hold Up (All Firearms in the United Kingdom) (2025, 1000% Triad Funded Records, taken from ‘Triad Funded’ EP)

Manchester’s SILVERWINGKILLER (again, note the capitals folks) merge the chaos of punk rock with the precision of electronica. At the same time they fuse Chinese mythology with pure adrenaline, which gives their music an edge that hasn’t been since Richard James took a drill into his studio. ‘Hold Up (All Firearms in the United Kingdom)’ is rather splendid, if trying to reintroduce a new generation to the wonders of Gabba Techno can ever be described as splendid.

Formal Sppeedwear – Hit N Run (2025, Melodic Records, taken from ‘Single’)

The only remotely new thing about Formal Sppeedwear (apart from perhaps the way the spell ‘Speedwear’) is the wave that they attach to their musical genre of choice. The only problem is that they exist in a world where new wave has because distinctly old wave and so those in the press have coined phrases like post post punk to describe new bands making old new wave music. If that makes sense. Regardless, Formal Sppeedwear sound like Talking Heads and A Certain Ratio at the same time and that makes them great.

Crimewave – Haemoglobin (2025, Fool’s Gold Records, taken from ‘Scenes’)

‘Scenes’ the debut album from Crimewave is quite extraordinary. It’s also quite unbelievable – because it is apparently an electronica album that has been recorded using only guitars and drums, and when you listen to it for the first time (and I recommend you do that, because it’s all kinds of excellent) you’ll sit there, scratch your head and wonder how on earth it can be true and then after all that you’ll play it again and marvel at its brilliance.

Mumble Tide – Pea Soup (2025, Breakfast Records, Single)

Bristol’s Mumble Tide are a very lovely thing. Their music is a hazy, dreamy pop that deserves to be listened to as you walk through some woods in the early autumn as the leaves flutter to the ground. The vocals (courtesy of Gina Leonard) are lush and that fits perfectly with the gentle squall of electronic and the occasional wail of a countrified acoustic guitar.

Thank you for reading, take care out there

SWC

 

Raincoats

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #401 : THE RAINCOATS

A guest posting by Chaval

One of the last shows I saw before Covid lockdown put an end to live music for a couple of years was a low-key affair in a cool little theatre in Hackney. It was November 2019 and The Raincoats had reconvened to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album.

It was a warm and nostalgic night, with an audience that seemed predominantly made up of survivors of the late 70s West London squat scene that had created a richly creative post-punk music environment. When the Raincoats introduced an old friend from back in the day to provide a short support set in the interval, it turned out to be Green of Scritti Politti (playing the hits).

The founding members of The Raincoats were Portuguese singer and guitarist Ana da Silva and English singer and bass player Gina Birch, Hornsey Art School teens who met in 1977. They were joined in 1979 by Vicky Aspinall whose distinctive violin-playing became a key element of their unique sound.

Their own set that night at Hackney was a reminder of the strange beauty of their music, mesmerising rhythms meshing with abrasive guitar, vocals that combined harsh atonality with melodic grace, sometimes in a single chorus, and visceral, emotive lyrics tackling some unsettling subject matter.

Kurt Cobain famously adored The Raincoats, although it’s difficult to see much musical common ground with Nirvana, and actually a bit irritating to think that such an original and distinctive band need any validation from a US rock star. Man had taste though. (Even with his endorsement, their profile remains low-key. If you Google the band, be prepared to wade through a lot of ads offering outdoor wear for the wet season).

Theirs is a music that traces a willingness to challenge the parameters of post-punk, that anticipated the “world music” trend, is of its time and timeless. Their first three albums, The Raincoats, Odyshape and Moving, were each very different works, singularly compelling. They reformed to make another record in 1996, but it was not in the same league, and does not feature here. Gina Birch’s solo work and her Hangovers project were OK, but still not comparable to the mercurial genius of the Raincoats.

OK, just want to say, let’s have some music now, yeah?

No Side To Fall In.

Let’s start with a tester, first track, debut album. Haphazard bleeps, clicks, squeaks, meandering bass, scratchy violin, a bit of sax, sighing, harmonic chant vocals – all the Raincoats’ bizarre appeal wrapped up in a squally melody in one minute 46. It gets easier.

No One’s Little Girl.

The title of this 1982 single b-side might promise strident feminism, but it’s not quite that, more a beautiful assertion of the new gender realities delivered over an enchantingly elegant bass and percussion line. The rhythmic inventiveness and gentle but provocative vocal offer a kind of arch riposte to Scritti’s ‘Sweetest Girl’ from the previous year. What’s the feminist word for ‘masterpiece’?

Only Loved At Night

From Odyshape, the Raincoats’ second and most out-there experimental LP. This song is built around a startling combination of drone guitar and kalimba (an African thumb piano – me neither) embellished with a mesmeric clockwork rhythm that seems borrowed from the soundtrack of an intense European psychological thriller. Da Silva’s sinuous vocal keeps things unsettling.

Running Away

There was a lot of soft jazz pop around in 1982, and this cover of the Sly and The Family Stone track was as close as The Raincoats got to mainstream (number 47 in the charts, apparently). Again the clattery percussion sets it on a path away from pop smoothness, although the trumpet keeps dragging it back with that blissful melody.

In Love

A standout from the debut LP. Now I always thought the chorus to this was “in love is so fucked up”, but the written lyric suggests “in love is so tough on my emotions”. Seriously? The lurching, anguished, exhausted vocal supports my thesis. With atonal guitar and Cale-Velvets style violent violin, this is the most harshly realist love song ever, brutally honest about the debilitating and alarming effects of romantic obsession. The last minute is gloriously horrible.

Honey Mad Woman

The full 12” version on the B-side of the Animal Rhapsody single from 1983 blends another one of those off-kilter rhythms with fluid African guitar. There is an enchanting mish-mash of female and male vocals and a lyric that draws on Levi-Strauss’s work on women in primitive societies occupying a borderland between culture and nature. A Rough Trade recording contract came with a library ticket in those days.

Shouting Out Loud

The opening track on Odyshape has a subtle, whispered intimacy at odds with its title, starting off sedate, becoming anguished and desperate with a lyric awash with paranoia, vulnerability and anxiety The percussion, nagging rhythm and tension on the two minute coda to this track are astoundingly effective.

Ooh Ooh La La La

Yes, the worse song title ever, but the first track from the Moving LP is partly a loping singalong, with an inviting bassline, sax stabs and a chorus chant of those title noises that occasionally suggests an alternative universe Bananarama. Except great, obviously.

And Then It’s OK

From the Odyshape LP, this is a stream of consciousness expressing random domestic anxiety (the lyric was written by Caroline Scott) where the disjointed rhythmic swerve of the music and murmured vocal are at odds, summoning up a disturbing, edgy atmosphere. The title is fooling nobody.

Lola

Yes, that Kinks song of gender confusion and cherry cola. The vocal manages to be both strident and vulnerable, and the levels of gender fluidity take on extra complexity with a female vocal masquerading as a male encountering a male masquerading as a female . . . A 60s cover that was ahead of its time, paradoxically.

chaval

 

JC adds………………..

chaval put this piece together more than six months ago, but for some reason or other it never reached the TVV inbox, but he assumed I’d decided not to run with it for some spurious reason or other.  It was only after reading Fraser‘s recent piece on an EP by The Raincoats that chaval got in touch to ask after the missing/unpublished ICA.

I just want to take the opportunity to thank chaval for his patience while, between us, we sorted things out…..and to also remind everyone that I never turn down guest offerings;  so if you’ve ever submitted something that hasn’t appeared, then please get back in touch, and you should hear back from me within a few days or so. (allow a week!!!!).

It might be the case (as it was with chaval) that the emails aren’t getting through to the TVV hotmail address for some strange reason or other, in which instance, leave a comment behind at a relevant post, and I’ll pick things up from there.

Cheers.

 

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#16:Don’t Shilly Shally : Edwyn Collins (Elevation Records, ACID 4/WEA 248273-7, 1987)

Alan McGee had co-founded Creation Records in 1983.  As indie-labels go, it had been a relative success, but there was an element of frustration that the limitations of the typical set-up of indies, particularly around distribution and finance, prevented singers and bands crossing over into at least part of the mainstream and enjoying greater rewards from their endeavours.

McGee approached WEA records, the biggest of them all, and suggested a joint venture whereby some Creation acts would benefit from the way the major label operated in the market.  This new hybrid label was called Elevation Records, and it was set to go from March 1987. McGee brought Creation signings The Weather Prophets and Primal Scream to the label, along with Edwyn Collins who, at long last, would be recording as a solo artist, with his debut single enjoying a release in July 1987.

It proved to be a song that wasn’t a million miles away from the sort which appeared on The Orange Juice LP back in 1984.  There are no musicians credited on the single, but there’s a very interesting producer on board – Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins.  He was responsible for all three songs which appeared on the single, but there was possibly a hint of dissatisfaction with the production as Edwyn’s old friend and trusted ally, Dennis Bovell, was later brought into to remix the A-side

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Don’t Shilly Shally

Here’s the two other songs from the session:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Queer Fish

The first of these was included on the 7″and 12″ releases, and makes for an interesting listen as there’s the occasional hint of the sort of guitar playing you’d pick up listening very closely to the Cocteau Twins.  It’s proved to be a song that Edwyn is very fond of it, as he would later re-record it on two occasions, the first being for his 1989 album Hope and Despair, and the second being as a b-side to a single in 1995 (watch this space!!!).

The second of the songs was only on the 12″, and in terms of what Edwyn had released up to this point, was quite experimental with a more electronic sound rather than relying on guitars.  It’s not one I go back to all that often.

None of the early singles on Elevation had been hits.  Don’t Shilly Shally was no different.  In an era when the singles chart went all the way to a Top 100, it came in, for one week, at #93.

JC

Incredible Blondes

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #487: INCREDIBLE BLONDES

Back in April 2019, not long after I bought the Big Gold Dreams boxset, I picked out one of its tracks and highlighted it on the blog.

mp3: The Incredible Blondes – Where Do I Stand?

Not being ashamed to regurgitate what I said back then, this Glasgow four-piece, consisting of Barry McLeod (vocal, guitar), Robert Campbell (drums), Stephen Boyle (bass) and Eddie Campbell (keyboards) were yet another highly tipped outfit beginning to get noticed on what was a lively and thriving local scene. Although unsigned, they were invited to record a session for the Janice Long Show on BBC Radio 1 following which they were contacted by Nick Low, the founder of No Strings Records, the label that had released the first ever Del Amitri single, and subsequently, The Incredible Blondes were added to the roster in 1985.

Where Do I Stand? was released as a single.  More than 30 years later, I heard it for the first time thanks to it being included within the boxset.

I went on to mention that while the band had called it a day when the single failed to chart, there had been a postscript in 2005 when Nic Lowe and Barry McLeod bumped into one another and, as you do, did some reminiscing. They realised that this one-off single was still highly sought-after by collectors, particularly in Japan, where the band still enjoyed cult status among fans of indie-pop. This led to the two of them delving into the vaults and deciding to give a belated release to a debut album by The Incredible Blondes on the resurrected No Strings Records.

Where Do I Stand? was the name given to the album – and a new version of the song was recorded with a lyric translated into and sung in Japanese by Aya Matsumoto, a waitress living in Glasgow at the time.

mp3: The Incredible Blondes – Where Do I Stand? (Japanese version)

The album was a mix of old recordings from the 80s and songs penned more recently by Barry. It was launched in March 2005 with the band reforming again for a one-off gig in their home city.

One more postscript, as far as this blog is concerned, came in August 2022, more than three years after the original post when none other than Barry McLeod left this belated comment:-

‘So glad you liked the single. Real life/ Uni, etc. took over. Still, good fun at the time’

Genuinely thrilled that he saw the post and commented on it.

 

JC

 

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #7

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

Mixed Messages : Or Why Can’t People Make Their Mind Up

Accidents Will Happen – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Apparently written after an “awkward tryst” with a cab driver at her home in Tucson, Arizona. The second single from Armed Forces, when EC and the boys could only make outstanding albums.

Accidents Never Happen – Blondie

Written by keyboardist Jimmy Destri as a parallel to Elvis’s song (they were both released in 1979). Supposedly about the mysticism former bassist Gary Valentine inspired in the band. Incongruously, featuring Judy Garland‘s daughter Lorna Luft on background vocals.

I Believe You –  Todd Snider

Poor Todd Snider. He died of pneumonia this past November, aged 59. He was a great storyteller, with songs full of funny lines about serious situations. (See Some Songs Are Great Short Stories, Chapter 35). From his 1996 LP Step Right Up.

I Don’t Believe You –  Magnetic Fields

If there’s a better lyricist than Stephen Merritt writing today I can’t imagine who it could be. He’s our century’s Cole Porter. This song comes from the 2004 album i, which is a collection of 14 songs beginning with the letter ‘I’ in alphabetical order. In other words, he’s as weird as I am.

Everyone Knows – Slowdive

The shoegaze stalwarts disbanded in 1995 and lead songwriter Neil Halstead went on to form Mojave 3. When that outfit packed it in he released all kinds of music before resurrecting the Reading quartet with a new drummer. The band’s self-titled comeback album came out in 2017–22 years after their last release.

No One Knows –  Queens of the Stone Age

First single from 2002’s Songs for the Deaf. Co-written with the late great Mark Lanegan who at the time was a band member. Lanegan isn’t on the single but the ferocious drums are courtesy of Dave Grohl. And the strings are performed by Ana and Paz Lechantin, before the latter joined Pixies.

Too Little Too Late – Metric

Has Metric ever made an appearance here at TVV?  (JC interjects – NOPE!!!) If not, it’s high time. The Canadian group, led by the wonderful Emily Haines, has been at it for almost 30 years and have released 10 solid records since 2003. This is an album track from the second one, 2005’s Live It Out, which featured a great single called ‘Monster Hospital.’ [note to JC, add that one as a bonus track at the end, if possible]

Too Much Too Soon – Green Day

I loved Green Day when they hit the scene. They were just the right mix of energy, irreverence, pop, and punk. Then they got popular, which is always irritating. But they kept making solid records, including 2004’s American Idiot, which this track is taken from. My cover band plays the title track, which I’m ashamed to say became the theme song for our government.

Everything I Need – Men At Work

The Australian combo only released three records in their day. They all went gold, including Two Hearts, which includes this track as its lead single. But the band was fracturing, and only three of the five original members appeared on it. Guitarist Ron Strykert actually bailed during the sessions. But MAW were always all about Colin Hay, anyway. He has that singular voice and wrote their best songs. Hay proved to be a nice guy that moved to my adopted hometown of Santa Monica, CA. I see him at Truetone guitar shop from time to time, and he gets involved with the music program at my kids’ high school.

Nothing I Need – Lord Huron

You’d be right in observing that half the music I listen to was released in 1979. But that doesn’t mean I don’t keep an ear open for great new music. This single was released by the Los Angeles indie stars in March of this year, from the album The Cosmic Selector Vol. I, which came out in July.

 

Jonny

 

Half Man Half Biscuit

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Part 1)

I’m sure most folk who drop by these parts will know all about C86, the compilation cassette released by the NME in May 1986 and which, in due course, was the name attached to a style or genre of music, derided by some but loved by many, centred about guitar-bands who recorded, in the main, for small and independent record labels.

The cassette, which came via mail order, contained 22 songs. It proved to be so popular that six months later, a vinyl version was issued by Rough Trade Records. Fast-forward to 2006, and Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne helped mark the 20th anniversary by curating CD86, a two-disc compilation of 48 tracks inspired by the original cassette. This particular compilation was released by Sanctuary Records, but just three of the songs that had been on C86 were included on CD86, albeit fifteen of the original groups had alternative tracks included.

Fast-forward again to 2014, and Cherry Red Records issued NME C86 : Deluxe 3-CD Edition, containing the 22 songs from the cassette, along with 50 other tracks from the era with some sort of link to the genre, along with an 11,500-word booklet of sleeve notes written by former NME journalist Neil Taylor.

Oh, and in August 2022, Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?, a truly fabulous book written by Nigel Trassell was published. Indeed, the contents of that book were set to form a series for the blog across 2026, but in the end, I’ve decided to be more ambitious/self-indulgent (delete as appropriate).

It’s now 40 years since the cassette was released, and I’m sure there will be some events etc. to mark the occasion in due course. I thought I’d steal a march (of sorts), by running a year-long series looking at, in alphabetical order, the 114 different songs you can find across CD86 compilation and the C86 triple-CD box set. Don’t worry, it won’t be over 114 different postings, as most will feature three or more at a time. But given I’ve had to do the introduction today, then it’s just the one to open things up.

mp3: All I Want For Xmas Is Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit – Half Man Half Biscuit 

Track 12, Disc 2 of CD86.

Here’s the thing. The version on CD86 is slightly different from the one I’m most familiar with, which is also ‘the official audio’ over on the HMHB You Tube page.

The song was, to the best of my knowledge, originally released on one side of a 7″ single back in 1987, along with a remix of The Trumpton Riots. It was then added to what became a second pressing of the 12″ The Trumpton Riots EP, when it was expanded from four to five songs, and then added to the debut album Back In The D.H.S.S, when it was given its first release on CD in 1988. I don’t own a copy of the 7″ or the expanded 12″ EP, so perhaps it is from one of those.

And of course, HMHB are still very much on the go today, arguably better than ever. Last year saw the release of All Asimov and No Fresh Air, their 16th studio album.  I included one of its tracks in my 25 from 2025 rundown, but Rol over at My Top Ten not loo long ago posted an outstanding review of the LP.  Click here and enjoy.

 

JC