hey this Thomas Dolby song is great. only heard his singles before really. and his Prefab production obvs.
what a tune Voyage Voyage is.
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OMG Yes! That should’ve been a contender for my top 10.
The playlist is great, on the whole, but yeah a few skippers for me (how Papa Was A Rodeo could be anyone’s favourite song of all time, I’ll never know!) and it’s a bit self-indulgent at times (3 GY!BE tracks, really!?!?)
But I’ve still been listening to it a lot. And got to agree on that Siouxsie track, that was a BANGER!
That’s not from my list, but it is in my top 5 Magnetic Fields song list.
It’s heartbreaking, and when they played it at Manchester Cathedral a few years back, it might be described as “heart-stopping”.
This playlist could finally get me “into” post punk.
There was the ace Siouxsie song, and now Dead Souls by Joy Division, which is surprisingly engaging and non-tedious.
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Lajko felix: etno camp
Dirty three: everything is fucked
Wave pictures: now you are pregnant
Titus andronicus: no future part iii
Dirty three: sea above sky below
God machine: seven
Mclusky: lightsabre cocksucking blues
Scout Niblett: Kiss
Josh T Pearson: Woman When I’ve Raised Hell
Palace Music: New Partner
I’m not even sure I listened to the words that closely, I just got a bit bored, and I’m a sucker for maudlin, introspection in music.
If I HAD to chose a Magnetic Fields song in this I think it would be “You, Me & The Moon” or “The Nun’s Litany”, but I am not that well versed in their output, having only ever got through the first disc of 69 Love Songs.
Based on consistent love over time (and ordered for listening pleasure):
Prince - Sign O The Times
Grimes - Genesis
New Kingdom - Cheap Thrills (Underdog Remix)
Seefeel - Minky Starshine
Biosphere - Patashnik
Primal Scream - MBV Arkestra (If They Move Kill 'Em)
My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
Tim Hecker - Dungeoneering
Yo La Tengo - My Heart’s Reflection
The Swirlies - Sunn
I make no apologies for a lack of content from prior to the mid 80s.
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If I had to choose one for the list it’d be Sweet Lovin’ Man - which I understand the band hates!
The other four from my top five:
I Don’t Believe You
California Girls
Papa Was A Rodeo
All My Little Words
California Girls would feature for me too, if I were choosing more than one. Distortion is the only album of their’s that I have gone back to consistently.
We should probably take this to the Magnetic Fields Appreciation Thread, but I suspect we’re done now.
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I like the idea of a little context (otherwise it’s JUST a list…)
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Gonna try, this is likely to change often though:
Silver Jews- We are real
Bob Dylan- Desolation Row
Los Camp- To Tundra
Elliott Smith- Kings Crossing
Neko Case- Star Witness
Simon and Garfunkel- The Boxer
Paul Simon- Still Crazy after all these years
Titus Andronicus- Theme from Cheers
GBV- Best of Jill Hives
Frank Ocean- Solo
right, will distract myself from work by doing it now…
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Prince - Sign O The Times (one of a handful of 80s classics that stand out for me, including Are Friends Electric, People Are People, Running Up That Hill and Road to Nowhere)
Grimes - Genesis (this is just a bubbling delight that has stuck with me since Visions, one of my top 5 albums of the last five or six years)
New Kingdom - Cheap Thrills (Underdog Remix) (just awesome, amazing band, superior to the album cut, the sort of hip-hop I like - sorry Kanye / Kendrick)
Seefeel - Minky Starshine (a lengthy pulsing atmosphere fest from the perfect guitar / electronic band)
Biosphere - Patashnik (I think Patashnik - the album - is unfairly overlooked in favour of his beatless later work, but this says “Space” to me, beautiful)
Primal Scream - MBV Arkestra (If They Move Kill 'Em) (like a furiously updated Hendrix rattling out licks between stations on the underground, primal and screaming)
My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes (the ultimate guitars as waterfalls track, pushing Mayonaise by the SPs out - favourite album of mine)
Tim Hecker - Dungeoneering (similar to the MBV track, but pulsing and waterfalling - heaven)
Yo La Tengo - My Heart’s Reflection (how to eke out a song with subtle guitar picks and a nagging bassline - favourite track from my favourite YLT album)
The Swirlies - Sunn (hands down favourite band - brilliant SY/MBV/other smash of genres)
All of these have been tracks I’ve listened to on headphones as my last listen before going to sleep.
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@bozo and @static They released a 20th anniversary mix on soundcloud that you can download - sort of halfway between the original album and the Rocket 500 cassette. Messy stuff.
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hah I’d never actually listened to the cover before. It’s an interesting spin. For me the way Ken Andrews sings the “some pills in a little cup” part in the original gets me every time.
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nice! thanks pal
I need to listen to more tindersticks - for me it’s ‘she’s gone’ - delicate, like a comforting pillow. Thanks for putting your thoughts down above (agree on dreams burn down, but then vapour trail…ahhhh…)
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Can’t be bothered doing all of 'em right now, but this is why I picked the first six:
Bobbie Gentry – Ode to Billie Jo
First heard this on the Warchild Help album in the late 90s. Sinead O’Connor covered it and it sounded like the most bewitching thing I’d ever heard. Still a great version, but I then checked out the original and liked that even more. The lyrics completely drew me in – the most beautiful portrait of another world, all the minor details in the narrative about small town life in the deep south, the intrigue of all of this revolving in some never quite explained way around the Tallahatchie Bridge. Great arrangement too – those beautiful earthy tones and the swooping strings.
Aphex Twin – 4
So much going on in this one, but it all still holds together so well. Great textures and I’ve no idea how the hell RDJ wrote it. Melodic, playful, unusual arrangement, cinematic, creative – pretty much presses all my musical buttons
Beach Boys – Til I Die
Pet Sounds gets all the plaudits as an album, but I don’t think any individual songs on it reach the heights of Til I Die/Surf’s Up/Feel Flows on Surf’s Up. Til I Die just has this transcendental beauty about it - the way the organ blends with the harmonies and the lyrics about loss of control work perfectly.
Wire – Outdoor Miner
Another one that blew me away when I first heard it as a teenager and stayed with me ever since. Surreal, poetic lyrics that I’d never really heard the like of before at the time and a weird structure – all wrapped in this great pop melody. It’s only the short version on the Spotify playlist which unfortunately misses out the ace arpeggiated piano solo on the extended version (the extended version clocking in at a whopping 2:51)
Underworld – Juanita:Kiteless…
Something special about this 90s era of electronica I think. Maybe it’s because the technology’s there, but hasn’t been refined to the point where all the rough edges have been smoothed out. The rough edges make everything feel more human even when it’s all synthesised, so it seems to resonate with me more. For me this is one of the best of that era – 16 minutes of hypnotic beats and constantly evolving melody. Only shame is that it isn’t longer…
Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna
Another one where the song just evolves naturally, albeit of a different style. Love how the melody surges and falls and just follows its own course. More great surreal lyrics (The fiddler, he now steps to the road/He writes ev’rything’s been returned which was owed/On the back of the fish truck that loads/While my conscience explodes). BOB was my first introduction to Dylan and I played it to death from the age of about 15.
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