27/13 - Summers Past

I'm back in Sweden. Sitting in my parents' home it feels like the past envelops me again. At the same time here is a rich and full present that puts Glasgow in perspective. If my life was a sentence I wouldn't know where to place the parenthesis. I guess I probably won't til I reach the punctuation, and by then it'll be too late.

Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes

Classic Bowie-penned rock anthem injected with just enough melancholy to shift it from embodying debauchery and youth, to looking at them as though from the future. A eulogy for the ever-slipping present. Nostalgia for what is happening right now. And now. And now... The sleeve-art is perfect too:

Nina Simone - Love Me or Leave Me

Strange thing about Nina Simone, she's one of those most instantly recognizable and universally appreciated voices (and rightly so), but at the same time her actual discography is almost ignored. Completely drowned out by hundreds and hundreds of compilations (just hav a wadethrough of her artist page on Spotify), noone ever lists Wild Is the Wind or High Priestess of Soul or Nina Simone in Concert amongst their favourite albums ever. Why that is I can't understand. This album is another case in point. Every damn track is solid gold. It should belong up there with the best albums of the 60s. It does for me. And this tune... As much as her fantastic singing dominates – just listen to the sheer force with which she drives that last verse home! – it also proves what a brilliant pianist she was.

I intend to be independently blue

The M*A*S*H - Suicide Is Painless

Has got to be the most brilliant and bizarre themetune ever. Lyrically composed by a 14-year old and intended to be "the stupidest song ever", it's the perfect combination of pitch black emo and jaunty barbershop. It's been covered by everyone from Marilyn Manson to the Manic Street Preachers, but you really need those wonderful choirs of the original (sung by the cast of M*A*S*H) to pull off the weird alchemy of melancholy and light-heartedness.

Joe Hisaishi - Kids Return

You know Joe Hisaishi? Yes you do. He's only composed the music for almost every Miyazaki-film there is. Plus he's made a number of soundtracks for that other japanese film-legend; 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano. This tune from the bittersweet nostalgic Kids Return is totally made for bikerides on a sunny summerday.

Abdelrahman Elkhatib & Solar Plexus - Ah Ya Zen

I've been a bit obsessed with this epic track since last week's Kieran Hebden/Gilles Peterson-binge. It seems to include pretty much everything. Frantic rhythms. Emotional crooning. Uplifting choirs. Exquisite instrumental solos. Surprising breaks. Ecstatic chanting. Pure funk. Stay with it til the end!



Finally this video is a brilliant accompaniement to an expertly tongue-in-cheek song. The dove made me laugh out loud.