there's an end to my horizon...

Earworms of the Week

"I'm So Ronery" -Team America OST

With North Korea in an even more ridiculous and dangerous place than they were when this song was orignally written in 2004, maybe we shouldn't be laughing at something that makes a mockery of a potentially very dangerous man indeed.... then again, perhaps that's exactly what we should be doing. Apparently Kim Jong-Il was a massive movie fan and had his own private cinema with a collection of thousands of hollywood films. Trey Parker always used to say that he liked to think there was a pretty good chance that the old boy had seen this film. I wonder what he thought?

"Prayin'" - Plan B

This popped up on a playlist when I was running the Bath Half last weekend, and it's a cracking song off a cracking record that I haven't listened to in far too long. Not many concept albums are worth a damn, but "The Defamation of Strickland Banks" works incredibly well... perhaps because it's so unexpected from someone like Plan B. Actually, another concept album that really works popped into my head the other day too... "A Grand Don't Come for Free" by the Streets. That's another album I should dig out and give a listen.

"Cochise" - Audioslave

Audioslave sound brilliant on paper: the Rage Against the Machine band with the Soundgarden singer. I don't think they ever quite lived up to that on record, but they came close a few times... perhaps most notably with this, the first song they ever released together. That Tom Morello riff is typically explosive but economical all at the same time. I'm not convinced they were ever quite this good again, which is a bit of a shame (or perhaps evidence that I should give their other albums a bit more air time).

"Casimir Pulaski Day" - Sufjan Stevens

This song is just so sad. Even after all the years since I first heard it, it still packs a hefty emotional punch. Actually, some of Stevens' stuff on his last record ("Carey and Lowell") reminds me of this as it's tonally and atmospherically pretty similar. Not many songs make me go a bit misty-eyed, but this is certainly one of them.

"After Hours" - We Are Scientists

A band with a very underrated ear for a melody, and this is one of their very best. Who could not love that video too?

"Band on the Run" - Wings

The title track of the album that was number one in the UK when I was born. That means it's 42 years old...... sounds pretty good for all that, no? Ah, Wings.... the band the Beatles could have been.

"Apply Some Pressure" / "Write This Down" - Maximo Park

Songs from opposite ends of Maximo Park's career. The first is pretty timeless sounding and is a nailed on classic in my book, but actually, listening to that playlist at the Bath Half, I was also struck by how good "Write this Down" sounded on a much less well-regarded album. They're a good band: very distinctive sounding and always striving to write interesting songs with intriguing lyrics. Another album onto the "listen to this more" pile then, yeah?

"Supermassive Black Hole" - Muse

In recent years, I've sort of looked to stay away from the main stages at Glastonbury. It's not that I'm trying to make a point, it's just that I've discovered that you miss so much if that's all you end up doing. My favourite band last year were Suede in the John Peel, and their slot was when Kanye West was on. It beats me why people spent so much time moaning and protesting about West, even as he was playing......just do something else. Anyway, that being said, Muse are playing Friday night on the Pyramid this year, and I might just succumb because they're just such a ridiculously good live band (and because they're just ridiculous, full stop). Depends what else is on, of course... but I can feel the need to see them slaying "Knights of Cydonia" again.

"Royals" - Lorde

I'm late to the party with this one, but she's just captivating, isn't she?

But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,
We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.

19 bloody years old, ladies and gentlemen. 19!

"Mountains" - Biffy Clyro

Soaring, and just bloody magnificent. I won't lie and tell you that I know exactly what he's singing about, but doesn't he just take you up with him when he lets rip? In quite what sense he is a mountain and he is the sea, perhaps only he knows. But what we do know is that you can't take that away from him.

Have a good weekend, y'all. I'll probably be running.