Captain Easychord, sir!

Yesterday evening I was standing up at a bus stop in Pimlico and I started weeping. I couldn't stop. I felt so helpless and dependent upon the one thing that no-one shouldn't ever depend on: work. I felt emotionally dependent on it, damn it and I couldn't help it. And then something strange happened: 'Captain Easychord' by Stereolab came on the ipod. It's my favourite Stereolab song: I love how straight the lyrics are but how the lush, familiar music envelops them and Laetitia's vocals make it such a warm song against all odds. It's perfect. But this time it completely transported me and I understood it completely, it became part of me.

Ne retenez pas, résistez pas
Faites vivre ce qui, ce qui doit vivre
Laissez mourir ce qui doit mourir

Bloody hippies

Listening to The Motifs' album Dots is an almost hippy experience, which I wouldn't normally welcome. But it's a beautiful beautiful record. Unlike hippy music, all the songs are very short - the longest by far being 2:18. That in itself pops my world. (I can't even say the world "rock" in the context of that phrase - what a snob. Anyway...) What I love mostly about it is how sparse it is - dead simple orchestration (usually no more than two instruments). The vocals are quiet, as un-showoffy as can be, and yet, the way the harmonies are delivered is truly sublime. They sound like an angel choir. The beauty of 'Sleeping Away' makes my Sunday night uncharacteristically sweet.

One day everyone will be listening to this

There is something extremely special about that Liechtenstein 7" 'Stalking Skills'. In fact, it's fucking amazing, like the best song Shop Assistants never wrote (and I bloody love Shop Assistants, so there). I played it last night at a quiet Spiral Scratch but in my head it was filling the dancefloors and getting the indiepopkids madly excited, as it should be. I know in my heart that as long as there are bands like Liechtenstein doing that sort of pop, my life will be a bright place of hope. It's difficult to imagine it being any other way.

Me and the strawberry girl

On a day like today, when all the pop seems to have driven me to the ground, and a lot of other things are messing up my head, I'm glad to say that listening to Talulah Gosh is proving therapeutic. Remind me to love 'Girl With The Strawberry Hair' (or 'Strawberry Girl' in some circles) forever and ever.