The Beginning of the Twist

So true to my word, I am reviewing my mix from Phil. I know it was form Phil in part because it starts with "The Beginning of the Twist" which was his favourite song when the mix was being made. As such I also know the hype machine played a big part in my mix being compiled.

*now with tracklisting*

Disc One

Track One - Futureheads - Beginning of the Twist

Well I love this song and think it is a triumphant return to form for them. Love the intro, love the backing vocals. Great start to the album

Track Two - Screams in a Vacuum - Love You Moon

Starts with quite heavy bluesy guitars and goes on in this vein for a bit too long in my opinion. I liek the vocals, I like the guitar, I like the rough hewn production values. I would like it to be one minute shorter as I was beginning to get bored by the end of it on the first listen and now seem to skip the track when it comes on. Sorry

Track Three -The Goonies R Good Enough - Cyndi Lauper

"Ooh" I thought, "this is very eighties. And a bit electro. Cool. A real change from the last track wiht a really long intro and wait. Is that Cyndi Lauper? Oh that voice is very distinctive - it is!" Catchy and fun in the way that Cyndi Lauper and Madonna (circa true blue) did in the eighties. I find myself humming this one sometimes and it takes me a while to remember what it is.

Track Four -Country/City - The Horror The Horror

Another change of tone as we hit a guitar riff. A really upbeat one at that. And I refuse to look up who this is despite thinking I know. I like the song though. Good riff, great drumming and good vocals. Good bassline too. It would be good for running to I think it really drives forwards. And it uses one or two of my favourite effects pedals. And ends abruptly. I liek that

Track Five - Grenades - Torche

We are now in the relatively heavy section of the mix. In fact this was what made me have doubts as to whether Phil was the person who made my mix. This again has a good riff and good vocals. Sounds very early nineties, a bit grunge and lot of long notes in the vocals over scuzzy guitars and the like. With a build up section in the bridge. Formulaic but to a formula I like and am quite familiar with. Again with the using some of my favouritte guitar effects (I used to date and know lots of musicians so am quite geeky about the technical stuff).

Track Six - Treat Me Like a Dog - King Kahn & BBQ Show

Return to fairly bluesy guitar here. Which is nice. Much better vocals. Sounds a bit like it might be a pshychedelia band doing something more bluesy. Which is cool. There is howling on it. Which makes me smile lots. Again good pace. This is a real wake up CD.

Track Seven - Elbow - Grounds for Divorce

Not my favourite Elbow song but works well with the bluesy vibe of the CD up to this point. Good beat. Like the repetition on some of the lines in the song which gives it along with what the music is doing the effect of being looped back, like a scratched record, which works well with the production which is nice and not too clean.

Track Eight - Jock-A-Mo - Sugar Boy Crawford

Mambo! I wish I knew how to mambo as that is the dance to do to this. I could imagine dancing Phil dancing to this. Not much more description is needed. This is straight up mambo, let's dance here is a horn breakdown, we live in the 1940s/50s did I say let's dance? stuff. And great for being that.

Track Nine -Kamphopo - Esau Mwamwaya

This has a great intro and sounds vaguely familiar which is bugging me. It features chanty vocals, stell drums and hand claps which not enough songs do. It shimmers and shines and sounds like summer. I still can't shake the idea it might be a cover though or something as it sound sso familiar. Love it though and want to know more about it and how to get more which meant that if the rest of the mix had been rubbish this song would have achieved what the exchange needed by being something that made me sit up and take note.

Track Ten - Century Eyes - Shearwater

Faltering sounding start to this which then shows itself to be deliberate. This is so flat after the last song though. I think most things would be as it is a return to guitars and more trad rock style singing. I will listen to it again I'm sure but in the context of the album it seems a bit 'meh'

Track Eleven - Breaking Standing - ¡Forward, Russia!

Is slightly helped by being after track ten. It also does things with guitars that I like, and make me happy with the vocal depsite it being the kind of vocal I really need to be in the mood for sometimes. This song was more of a grower than the other songs but I quite like it now. I think we are hitting the stage of the album where I was often very sleepy when I first gave it a listen. So the reviews may have less of my immediate response from now on.

Track Twelve - Staying Alive - Tragedy (a BeeGees Metal Cover Band)

And a return to rock. It is a cover of "Staying Alive" which reminds me of some of the metal parodies on the Popbastard christmas album "Merry Bastard Christmas" a free Cd that came with one of thier gigs. Entertaining and plays to my love of covers but did not set my world on fire. Which is shame. It does make some of the lyrics sound a bit darker though and make them more in keeping with the attitude of the film (Saturday Night Fever) than the camp image it has come to have.

Track Thirteen - Countdown - Jupiter One

Hello electro. A bit itali disco but less shimmery than that. Not much less shimmery though but has a male vocal which is not as pretty as the female vocals usually preferred by that scene (from what I have heard). I'm not sure about this. I like some of this kind of stuff for listening to at home but generally prefer to listen to stuff like this when I am somewhere sweaty and dancing. So am not sure if the setting where I listened to it did it justice. I also think it was a bit too long. It did not follow the formula like it should as there is a formula to this kind of song. It wa sonly thirty seconds too long though. So not too bad.

Track Fourteen - Nightforce - Power Glove

Ooh this one starts all dark and broody sounding, and keeps the more electronic vibe going with synthesisers and keyboards and gets a bit eighties as it really starts to move (I think we may be sensing a theme here). I was not so sure about the sound effects over the top. Possibly a bit creepy for my fraidy cat tastes? I don't know. Oddly though I like a lot of cinematic music (like Amon Tobin for example) I found this left me cold. Like the x-files movie it managed to be scary and dull at the same time. Quite an achievement though if you think about it.

Track Fifteen - Comic Book All Stars - PG13

This one starts with an electro voice but then skips into a more nineteen sixties kind of vibe. That mix of times reminds me of Pitzicato 5 who I loved. The sort of song IKEA would have encouraged you to get rid of a few years ago wiht thier "chuck out the chintz" campaign, it uses a lot of the same effects and tropes as the last song but has a better base tune which means it is less boring, but it does get a wee bit repetitive after a while as well.

Track Sixteen - Kill Me Now - Dreadful Yawns

In fact it was so repetitive that when I heard guitars I did a little dance of joy. And this song does deserve a little dance. It still features synths and so on but has male/female vocals and is much more upbeat and joyful in terms of the tune. Again it is a bit eighties but then a lot of scandinavian pop is now. And that is not such a bad thing. It also has a very definate ending, which is good as it is the end of disc one.

Before I get to disc two, I will say the cover was really pretty as you would expect from Phil with lovely quality paper and a drawing which links well with the bluesy emphasis on disc one. I shall review disc two soon. Monday probably.

Today is Monday

Disc Two

Track One - Stay (Just A Little Bit More) - The Dø

This song is just incredibly cute and summery. It starts with cute guitar and the then the vocal starts and there is whistling and it makes me feel like a Disney heroine but in a good way. Like birds would help me get dressed. It is that cute.

Track Two - Sunshiner - Lacrosse

We're sticking with cute for now. And I'm sticking with refusing to look up the songs despite being fairly sure who they are and who they are by. This is again the sound of sunshiney days and picnics and continues the cheery vibe of this disc.

Track Three - The Real Sheila - Game Theory

Did I also mention that this disc has more of a nineties brit-poppy/ scandinavian vibe? Or at least up to this point? Well it does. But this song is a bit weaker than the opening two and kind of feels like filler. Which is a shame as the band sound quite interesting, just not this song.

Track Four -Moving Clocks Run Slow - We Were Promised Jetpacks

Ah drums and strummy guitar. It could be reminiscent of the bad indie/emo bands of six years ago, or it could be reminiscent of some good instrumental bands of now. Oh it is neither really. Vocals but not emo style vocals. The guitar is pretty, the vocals forgetable. The lyrics not of that much importance I guess. I like this but it is a bit predictable, but as I said up there formulaic is not always the worst thing to call something.

Track Five - Whiskey Jingle [demo] - Margot & The Nuclear So and So's

And here is the change from summery and shimmery to more sad. This song is a bit gloomy. Good but gloomy. Interesting effect use don the vocal to make it sound more tortured and like it being sung from a bathroom. The instrumentation is relatively sparsely used but to good effect. This song really does drop the mood though.

Track Six - Cath... - Death Cab For Cutie

Oh I like this intro. I don't like doing band comparisons so I wont say the beginning of this intro is very million dead on a slow song. Also it is very clearly not million dead as that is not frank singing. It is not quiite as good as the intro though. I like it but...

Again I used to know people who wrote songs like this and I think this is one of the ones they would have asked me to check if it sounded like someone else for them. Um that is all I can say on this one.

Track Seven - Hacienda Motel - Voxpop

This is back to me feeling like it is the nineties. Like the time when Sleeper and Rialto were bands to watch. Not that this sounds like them, it just sounds like it would have been a hit then. The synths are kind of cool and the vocal is clearly trying to tell a story. Which is nice.

Track Eight -Britches Blanket - My Education

For a second I thought this was going to be sunburn but no, it is far more chilled out and less histrionic. Which is almost a shame. Almost because this song is lovely and perfect for a wet Monday in August (which this is). In fact it makes more sense listening to it now than it did before. This is an instrumental number with strings gently fading in and out, a little piano and some long notes and so on from the guitar. Lovely and it builds too, like many of the best instrumentals do.

Track Nine - Come In Out of the Rain - Engineers

This song has vocals and reminds me of Ride. I'm not sure that it is Ride though. And if it is not I have made another comparison with a band. Ick. So what does this sound like beyong Ride. Well it is slow soft and epic. With big swooping bits and many layers of sound with a very spaced out sounding vocal.

Track Ten -Even The Sunbeams - From Bubblegum To Sky

This intro is so cute it slightly scares me and makes me think something bad will happen. Yes my mind works like that. Fortunately the vocal is not sugary sweet. The song is though. Hard to describe beyond that though. So am not going to. This sounds more like evening on a sunny day though. The day is ending because the plinky plonky keyboard says so.

Track Eleven - California - Rogue Wave

The day is definately ending. Now we have folksy guitar in the song circle we have formed at the festival we are clearly at. The sun has not yet gone down but is very nearly there and we are drinking lemonade by a campfire. This is very pretty guitar and vocals stuff - very peaceful.

Track Twelve - Random Rules - Silver Jews

I think we are still at the campfire and here is someone else who has somehow got a plugged in guitar. His voice is less pretty but he is far more about telling a story. So much so he has attracted his own brass band to help out with the sound. Again I think I know who this is but am leaving it blank.

Track Thirteen - How Deep Is Your Love - The Bird And The Bee (originally the BeeGees)

I think this is enough to make me like the song how deep is your love. This is yet another beegees cover. But I like this one more. If we were continuing the festival analogy this would be night now and some serious "tent time" with someone. Maybe playing this from a little ghetto blaster bought just for that purpose.

Track Fourteen - I Started A Joke - Low (once again, originally the BeeGees)

The "tent time" did not go so well. We are now listening to "I started a joke" and all I know is that this does not sound like the faith no more version. But something went wrong for my analogy person. This song and version are good but not compatable with "tent time" I think. More with being sat outside your tent at four am in the rain crying. But in a cathartic way.

Track Fifteen - The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson

Help is at hand for our crying festival-goer. Here is a song to comfort them. It has a great bassline and is pretty and lovely. But very chilled out. They have been found crying and brought into a tent where they have been given hot chocolate or chai and hugs. And maybe other things that rhyme with hugs. Either way they are now filled with a feeling of contentment. This is helped by the handclaps, the light female vocal and sweet guitar.

And so it ends with our protaganist full of joy.

The Wind Cries Rory

I'm flattered. I'm pretty sure I've never had an album named after me before. Not counting the ones I made myself at any rate. This is clearly an album of firsts, and it continues to be such when I start to listen to it.

For the most part it's the first time I've ever heard—or even heard of—these artists. That's pretty much the point of this exchange. But I'll be honest that it was something that almost stopped me from participating. When it comes to music, I am not a neophile. In the end though, I shouldn't have worried. There's so much variety in this album that I'm sure anyone could have found something they like.

I have a confession to make. I didn't just listen to this album and decide if I liked it without knowing what was on it. I can't do that. I need to be able to give a song a name before I can properly decide if I like it. Anyone else get that? I used certain tools that shall remain Google to find out what these songs were. I managed to compile a listing for 13 of the 15 tracks. Since the other two proved undiscoverable I'll just have to pretend that they don't really exist.

So here's the track listing:

1. King Creosote—Cockle Shell


2. Lacrosse—You Can’t Say No Forever


3. Guillemots—Cockateels


4. Jay-Z—Change Clothes


5. Cansei de Ser Sexy—Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above


6. The Rapture—Whoo! Alright, Yeah... Uh Huh


7. Florence and the Machine—Kiss with a Fist


8. …


9. Alphabeat—Digital Love


10. Shout Out Louds—Tonight I Have to Leave It


11. Lykke Li—Dance, Dance, Dance


12. Operator Please—Other Song


13. …


14. Laura Marling—Failure


15. Leonard Cohen—Suzanne

Wikipedia tells me that there's a surprisingly Scandinavian tone there. A clue about the album's compiler? I have no idea. Frankly I couldn't begin to guess who this is from.

Ok, enough lead up. Let's get to what the review is meant to be about. Is it any good?

Well like I said, it's got something for everyone, so what's it got for me? I really like the cover of Digital Love. Maybe that's cheating, because I already know the song (though not this version) and this exchange is meant to be about new music.

So then I offer Kiss with a Fist. Brilliant song. I really like it. I even thought it was good before I knew anything about it beyond the name, "Track 7", and as I already noted that's not something I'm usually capable of. Best song about domestic violence all year. Did I imagine it or have I since heard this in a TV advert?

Those are the best two, but they're not the only good here. Tracks 2, 6, and 12 have also happily worked their ways onto my iPod.

After several straight-through listens (more than any other non-Pixies album this year, in fact) I find the rest of the album doesn't grab me quite as much. Some parts are quite lyric-focused, so I imagine whoever made this collection is the kind of person to pay a lot of attention to what's being said. I'm the opposite I'm sorry to say. I rarely know what the singer is saying when I listen to music.

Still, even the tracks that don't entirely hit the spot for me are perfectly listenable and will have a happy place in the big music rotation I call iTunes. With the exception of Leonard Cohen, who shall never know that honor. A single miss, and five hits. That's about as good as any album I've bought myself recently, so I'd say a it's a big success for an album crammed with entirely new (to me) music.

Thanks, mysterious stranger. :)