A Fistful Of Diamonds Or Just Shards Of Glass...?

No music to get excited about in 2025? Here are half a dozen replies to the contrary, released in the last week alone!

1) Into Dust (Still Falling): Four Tet

2) Cut & Rewind: Say She She

3) Pollyanna: Just Mustard

4) BYE BYE 25!: Kim Gordon

5) Sad Piano (Extended Mix): Daphni

6) I'm Not Done (Therapy Session): Fever Ray

Click on the links to buy the above (and more) from Bandcamp.

 

 

 

 

 

Previous Stuff

In June 2023, I posted the second disc of three CD-Rs of ripped albums gifted by my friend John in early 2010. Appropriately titled Stuff, the bundle contained a fair bit of stuff - artists and albums - that I wasn't familiar with.

Today's belated return visit focuses on disc !, and again I've collated a 9-track selection, sequenced in the order that the albums were presented on the CD-R.  Seven of the songs date from 2009, one from 2008 and one from 2010, which must have been freshly released when I received John's gift.

Editors appear here twice, not because I thought they're way better than anything else here, although In This Light And On This Evening is a very good album. The second track is the opener of a bonus mini-album, Cuttings II, which was included in the CD-R bundle of bootlegs.

John had previously shared music by David Kitt, which I like most of the time, depending on my mood/frame of the mind at the time. I love the instrumentation and structure but find - perhaps unfairly - that Kitt's voice can sound annoyingly indifferent at times. I like this song very much, though.

Both Editors and Doves were bands I was familiar with, yet hadn't heard any of their albums in full. I'd really liked the slew of remixes that accompanied the latter's Kingdom Of Rust and the album itself didn't disappoint either.

Likewise, Fever Ray. An astonishing solo debut from Karin Dreijer, and the beginning of an enduring fascination with their work. The same can be said for Laura Marling's debut, another artist that made an immediate impact and has grown with each album.

The Filthy Dukes album was a revelation. Based on a few tracks and remixes, I'd fully expected a collection of four-to-the-floor club bangers. Nonsense In The Dark proved to be much more complex and genre-challenging. Poison The Ivy, for example, features frYars aka Benjamin Garrett and sounds like a cover of a lost Joy Division song.

Although The Trials Of Van Occupanther will probably remain my favourite Midlake album, they proved with 2010 follow up The Courage Of Others that the parting of ways with Tim Smith wasn't the end of the road. 

Of course, around the same time Midlake also provided the musical bedrock for an artist who had been in a band and gone solo. So, 2010 saw the release of The Courage Of Others as well as Queen Of Denmark by John Grant. Whatever happened to him?!

Like the Filthy Dukes pastiche of Joy Division, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's self-titled first album sounded like it could have been released on Sarah Records back in the 1980s. However, this music was purely 21st Century NYC, not Eighties Bristol.

Come Saturday seemed like an obvious pick, knowing that I was going to post the selection today, though it's also a fair representation of the album as a whole.

When I posted disc 2 back in 2023, I doctored a negative image of John's self-produced sleeve for the headline photo. This time, I've taken it outside for a very welcome dose of springtime sunshine. 

I've just noticed that disc 3 includes a Christmas-themed album amongst the picks. I may not leave it until December - or another two years - before presenting the third and final part of this collection!
 
1) Learning How To Say Goodbye: David Kitt (2009)
2) Compulsion (Album Version): Doves (2009)
3) Papillon (Album Version): Editors (2009)
4) This House Is Full Of Noise: Editors (2009)
5) When I Grow Up (Album Version): Fever Ray (2009)
6) Poison The Ivy: Filthy Dukes ft. frYars (2009)
7) My Manic And I: Laura Marling (2008)
8) Bring Down: Midlake ft. Stephanie Dosen (2010)

9) Come Saturday: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (2009)

 
2008: Alas I Cannot Swim: 7

2009: Fever Ray: 5

2009: In This Light And On This Evening: 3

2009: In This Light And On This Evening / Cuttings II (limited edition 2x CD): 4
2009: Kingdom Of Rust: 2

2009: Nonsense In The Dark: 6

2009: The Nightsaver: 1

2009: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: 9

2010: The Courage Of Others: 8

 
Stuff (Disc 1) (40:40) (KF) (Mega)

Stuff (Disc 2) can be found here

See How The Sun Shines Brightly

Mix CD, cut and pasted together for my friend Bridget, 22nd December 2009. 21 songs from the last year of the noughties and a little bit of Friday loveliness to welcome the weekend.

 

1) Dreams Are Dangerous: Bruno Coulais

2) All Or Nothing (Album Version): Au Revoir Simone

3) The Sun: Portugal. The Man

4) You'll Never Know (Dub My Love Re-Edit By Khayem): Edwyn Collins

5) Promise Less Or Do More: The Whitest Boy Alive

6) When I Grow Up (Dan Lissvik Radio Edit): Fever Ray

7) Sort Of Revolution (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix): Fink

8) Knotty Pine: Dirty Projectors + David Byrne

9) Warm Heart Of Africa (Album Version): The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig

10) Other Fathers Song: They Might Be Giants

11) Mr. Blue Sky (Cover of Electric Light Orchestra): The Spinto Band

12) Runnin' Scared (Cover of Roy Orbison): Micah P. Hinson

13) Ambivalence Avenue: Bibio

14) Jennifer And Julia: The Clientele

15) Boy Lilikoi: Jónsi

16) Happiness (Quiet Village Remix): Jonathan Jeremiah

17) Falling Down (A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind Pt. 4 By The Amorphous Androgynous): Oasis ft. Alisha Sufit

18) Wicked Game (Cover of Chris Isaak): exlovers

19) Tonight You Belong To Me: Lightspeed Champion ft. Charlotte Froom

20) 1901 (Ivan Beck Dub): Phoenix

21) Let's Fall Back In Love: Slow Club

 

See How The Sun Shines Brightly (1:12:08)