Willie Campbell and Kevin MacNeil — Local Man Ruins Everything

(see Laura, I found out who it was eventually)

Because, well, I'm a sucker for songs that sound like Arab Strap's The First Big Weekend. "You think we're worthwhile / because we conquered the world / but I raise a toast / to the local man / who ruins everything" Yay for Scottish misery!

Annie — The Wedding

I assume that this song was recorded from a live set, partly because of the audience noises (aha!), but mainly because it sounds rather unfinished. Sounding Kraftwerk-y and electrolounge-y (I'm officially allowed to make up these words now, you know), it sounds promising, although much of that is down to Annie's breathless "I do / I do / I do / I do" refrain that echoes throughout the track. Not quite as catchy as the rest of Anniemal, though.

Sugababes — Push The Button / Girls Aloud — Long Hot Summer

It's the return of Pop to save us all! Maybe. I have to say that I'm underwhelmed by these two songs. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with the Sugababes track until someone on Popjustice pointed out that it sounded a little like Abba. And it does. And I hate Abba (heretical, I know, but still). It does have a fantastic line in "My sexy ass has got him in a new dimension", but aside from that, a miss (watch it storm the charts, naturally). And Long Hot Summer? Eh. They should have just covered Cruel Summer instead.

Handsomeboy Technique — Your Blessings

J-Pop crossed with the Avalanches. Pure summer joy. (Probably a pain in the neck to get hold of, though; the album was only released in Japan last week, and isn't showing up in the usual places. I do have six tracks if anybody is interested…)

Also, it's been a year since You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve. So what have Johnny Boy been doing since? It appears that after their storming of the charts back in August 2004 (in a manner akin to Mark & Lard's Records of The Week, naturally), they 'parted company' with their record label, and headed off into the wildnerness. But I've been checking their website infrequently, and can now tell you that Generation has been re-released! In Sweden. So, er, well, to be honest, I still don't know if we'll ever hear anything else by them again (there's an argument, I suppose, that it'd be better if they never made anything else, and just left us with one moment of genius and a few scraps, but I would like to see if they have other tricks up their sleeve. Although the word 'Ultrasound' keeps coming back to me for some reason), but now that they have SWEDISH MIGHT! behind them, it's looking more hopeful.

(and I apologies for the amount of asides in this entry (this one added for hilarious effect))