meish dot org: life, unfolding

(for the album which you played and played and played and played and played – doesn’t have to be a 2005 release)

Elbow – Leaders of the Free World

I quite like Elbow – have done ever since the brooding mantra-like Any Day Now – but I’d never really given their albums a particularly good listen, because I much preferred the singles to the rest of their output.

Having said that, Leaders of the Free World is in a different class entirely. I certainly wouldn’t say it was the best album ever or anything, but it has a pleasing wholeness to it, which means it makes for a good listen from start to finish. In fact, I probably couldn’t think of any one song in particular – apart from the thumping Station Approach as opener – and yet I feel like I know the album well.

Close runners-up in this category:
Kate Bush – Aerial (see above) and Jeff Waynes – War of the Worlds musical interpretation. Dum-dum-DUURR (Diddly! Diddly !) etc.

(for the song that – good or bad – got stuck in your brain for days/weeks/months on a permaloop)
Nizlopi – JCB Song

I have a problem. Sometimes, when I’m particularly stressed by things, I find it difficult to switch off in the evenings. If I’m particularly wound up, then I find it difficult to fall asleep at night. Things keep going round and round and round in my head, and I just can’t stop them.

Sometimes it’s a thought, or replaying a particular situation. Sometimes it’s a phrase or bunch of words which just keep on churning. And sometimes, the thing on permaloop in my brain has nothing to do with my stress, but has somehow become lodged there in the course of the day, like a poppyseed between two molars.

Sometimes, those times, it’s a song, or piece of music. It’s only happened to me two or three times in the last year or so, but each time is painful – I toss and turn in bed and curse the songwriter, the musicians, the studio technicians, the A&R rep, the publicist and everyone who might have had anything to do with the production of such an earworm.

On one such night last year, I was kept awake into the wee small hours by the 24 bar riff which accompanies one of Luigi’s Rec Room card games in Super Mario World DS, which I had been playing before I put my head down. That was irritating, and I vowed henceforth to play that particular game with the sound off.

The other such sleepless night was caused by Nizlopi’s endearing JCB Song, which I came across on their website, and listened to a couple of times during the day. Later – much later – that night, I lay staring at the ceiling, screaming inside my head over the refrain

We’re holding up the bypass / woooaooooah / me and my dad having a top laugh / oooaoooah / and I’m sitting on the toolbox / woaoah / and I’m so glad I’m not in school boss / glad I’m not in school….

Round and round and round and round it went.
I turned onto my side.
I flipped over onto my stomach.
I sat up and plumped the pillows.
I punched myself in the ear.
I tried thinking about Snooker Loopy Nuts Are We instead, which usually does the trick, but to no avail.

Finally, as it was starting to get light, I managed to dislodge it from my cranium, replacing it with something else. Unfortunately, I only managed to replace it with the faster bridge bit of the song

I’m Luke, I’m five, my dad’s Bruce Lee / Drives me round in his JCB

And on and on it went, until the birds were all awake, the flights started coming overhead again and it was time to get up.

Since then, I’ve tried to avoid listening to it, or even reading the lyrics, for fear of triggering a repeat nocturnal performance. Of course, writing this now has started the tune in my brain….

Nizlopi, that was a sweet little song and everything, and your meteoric rise to the top of the charts via the wonderful web is truly impressive, but I hate you for writing the audio equivalent of crack cocaine. Begone, and never darken my brain again with your tuneful childhood musings.

And take Kylie Minogue with you.

(for the album that grew on you)

Kate Bush – Aerial

When I first heard the single King of the Mountain, I was fairly underwhelmed, and assumed the rest of the album would be much the same.

After the first listen through of the whole thing, I thought she’d gone mad, or at very least continued to feed the madness of the early years. It was kooky, strange, screechy in bits, odd prog-rock opera in others, and it had Rolf Harris doing a guest appearance. There was a song about a washing machine, and one about Pi, in which she sang all the numbers, in order. I thought it was a bit too concept for me, and didn’t think much more about it.

And yet, I somehow wound up listening to it again and again and again and with each listening, grew to appreciate it more and more. A real grower, this one. Yes, she’s still bonkers, but it’s a good album, nevertheless.

(for the album you expected to hate, but you actually ended up liking)

Hard-Fi – Stars of CCTV
I thought they were going to be another bunch of hyped-up scruffy twenty-somethings with a good-looking lead singer and one catchy track. I ended up really liking this album, and I was surprised. Plus it was recorded in an old cab office in Staines or Slough or something, which is cool.

Straight out of West London / just like a loaded gun / the cognoscenti don’t like us / they don’t like us…

Yeah, but I do.