Analogue Devices

Rule 1 of poll-based charts: Fans of Norwegian bands are to be feared and respected, lest they unleash their might forces against you.

currently playing: ABC – Many Happy Returns

ANNOYING!

Why did they have to get somebody who I’d like to watch? grumbles about work

currently playing: Lisa Loeb – It's Over

Doin' The Do!

She’s baaaaaack!

(Daphne & Celeste are also planning a 2006 return as well!)

currently playing: Stars – Counting Stars On The Ceiling

Eh?

Internet still not short of people with far too much time on their hands (these people need to read a few k-punk reviews, seriously).

currently playing: Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For

*sniff*

cries uncontrollably

Is Raymond Briggs still alive? Because he needs a good slap…

currently playing: The National – Mr. November

My Music Shame

Glancing over at Sweeping The Nation’s UK Albums of 2005 poll, I have to confess:

I still haven't heard Funeral.

currently playing: Saint Etienne – Stars Above Us

Dearly Departed

Well, 2006 is beginning with endings, sadly, and that’s before Unicron shows up to threaten the universe (it’s going to take me a while to get it out of my system, sorry). After almost six years, New York London Paris Munich is closing its doors. Together with its sort-of-half-cousin-through-an-illicit-affair site, I Love Music, it has kept me entertained and informed over the past half-decade, so I’m sad to see Tom close it down. But these things happen, and definite endings are better than drawn-out zombie deaths, I guess (please don’t mention Hobart Paving).

Anyway, 2006. Snobbery and decay. Yes!

currently playing: Act – Snobbery and Decay

2006: What To Expect

2006: A Guide!

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(I've waited twenty years to use this flimsy gag. Humour me!)

currently playing: Stars – sleep tonight

2006: BOO!

cd:uk has been axed, apparently. Curse of Lauren strikes again…

currently playing: Lauren Laverne — Mexico

I Love 2005: Because Once Indie, Always Indie

Handsomeboy Technique — Your Blessings

That'll be an album track on a Japan-only CD. I do have the first album, and yes, it is quite rare.

I know I said at the beginning that this round-up was in no particular order, but I did save my favourite until last. Ever since I heard it one July morning in Carrboro, I've been deeply in love with this song.

If I told you that the band seem to be a Japanese version of The Avalanches (it's been, what, five years, lads? Get back to work!), it'll probably give you a good idea as to what they sound like; lots of sound collage and blissed-out grooves. But oh, this.

I can feel a new expression on my face
I can feel a growing sensation every place

This song sounds like every crush you've ever had. Every time you've looked over at someone at a party, every time you've smiled a bit too long at somebody, or tripped over your tongue in a failed attempt not to embarrass yourself. That giddy rush when she smiles back, or when she says "hello" when walking down the street. It's all here.

I wish I could tell you how much I care
every time that you, that you, that you…

It's a song for hopeless cases, for winter nights that last into four in the morning, for mixtapes and hand-made books, and for giving yourself alcohol poisoning in an attempt to build up courage.

I can feel a new expression
every time that you that you, that you…

Hints of a Chic guitar, the British Dreambabes of the 1960s, synthesised strings, sprinklings of glitter, and those 1970s computer sounds building up into that explosion of a chorus. And than all over again. And again. And again. Then, just as you feel that the song is beginning to end, it comes back for one final time:

I wish I could tell you how much I care
every time that you, that you, that you…

Your cheeks flush red as the singer sings "I wish I could tell you how much I care" with a quiet desperation. You look over towards the other side of the room, and sigh as the song begins its stuttering conclusion.

It's a song that I can't listen to regularly, as it completely drains me. But when it crops up on random rotation, it gives me the sensation of a crush in a five-minute shot. Nothing else in 2005 even came close.

BONUS EXTRA LIFE! HYPER SONIC IMPROVEMENTS! ARTICLE POWER-UP!

Jackie Deshannon — When You Walk In The Room

This is the song that Your Blessings is based on. I think we can safely say that Handomeboy Technique's version is much better…

currently playing: Handsomeboy Technique — Your Blessings