Some X 8

For my homonym I chose “Sometimes“, which was a lot of fun in that it opened up my search to avenues less traveled by. While a couple of these are songs I know and love, most were ones that manifested themselves to me only when I arranged my iTunes by song to see what I had. I love finding pleasant surprises among things I already own!

1. James
I blabbed about James in a previous post, so I’ll just say that this is the song that initially grabbed me. A long rambling jangly anthem with beautiful but non sequitur word imagery, I fell in love with it and played it over and over. Still do. Which touches upon a little mini-rant that’s been kicking around in my head for a while: who the hell is this new band called “U2″ and why don’t they write, y’know, good songs like that old band I used to love called U2? Sidestepping a few paragraphs of criticism of U2 themselves, I just find it very sad to hear many current bands (James, The Helio Sequence, We Are Scientists) obviously immensely influenced by U2, that write and release songs that would be astounding smash hits if they were by U2. But no, we get stuff about how crazy my boots are tonight, crap like that. Same thing has happened to Depeche Mode. These guys are obviously still great musicians, with a world following, that can smear feces onto iTunes and everyone will still buy it - but why not wait until you actually have something to say before you squirt out an album? And if you just find yourself with nothing interesting to say, having progressed from struggling artists to comfortable millionaires, then please, for the love of MLK, please buy some good songs from some struggling new songwriters. Y’know, like James.

2. The Psychedelic Furs
A wonderful little song I’ve had forever but never really paid much attention to until now. It sounds like it’s going to be The Troggs at the beginning before settling into that 80s haze that The Furs excelled at. There would be no M83 if there had not first been The Psychedelic Furs.

3. Erykah Badu
I’ve never liked Miss Badu as much as everyone else, finding her a bit too arch, too precious, seemingly concerned more with creating a strong vocal presence than writing a catchy song - but that’s just me. This one is fine, grabbing the mood of Eric B & Rakim’s “The Ghetto” and spinning some smooth riffs on top. I guess when all is said and done, if I’m not A) seeing her live, B) having sex, or C) a woman who’s going to relate to the lyrics by interrupting here and there with an “mmmhmmm, that’s right!”, I don’t get much out of her music. Yeah, I’m probably just not the target audience.

4. Erasure
In a world full of pop music narcissists, Vince Clarke may well be a standout. After all he’s been writing beautiful love songs for decades, then hearing his own words sung back to him by the love of his life, Andy Bell. And thank God he is so into himself in that way, for we get to enjoy the byproduct.

5. The Zombies
Last year I finally got around to picking up “Odessey And Oracle” for myself and was blown away listening to something that should be mentioned in the same breath as “Sgt Peppers” and “Pet Sounds”, but of course is not. I mentioned this to my brother and voila on my birthday he gave me MP3s of their entire oeuvre! Thankfully my brother doesn’t do things halfway.

6. Blind Melon
There’s a very good reason I owned this but never paid it much attention. It’s from the “new” Blind Melon, reuniting the old band with new lead singer Travis Warren. Not bad, certainly, but there really isn’t anyone who could ever fill the sandals of Joplinesque whirling dervish Shannon Hoon. Admittedly this affected my attempted enjoyment of their new work, but upon further review this is just fine, sounding more like a new Jellyfish song than anything else.

7. Noisettes
Sam gave me all the Noisettes stuff a little while ago, this is hardly a standout track but is still a good example of the kind of soulful strut female artists in the UK are currently enjoying, and which we here across the pond are almost completely missing out on. Thank you Sam, for continually broadening my horizons. har de har.

8. Depeche Mode
A nice little coda for my list, this is off the “go ahead, try to pick a single” immersive experience of Depeche Mode’s best album, “Black Celebration”. Hey, remember when these guys were good? And wrote melodies, instead of just picking the darkest and most awkward chords possible in an ongoing attempt to hang onto that dark gothic image that was thrust upon them by teenagers of the world? I mean come on guys, take a page out of your founder Vince Clarke’s book, and remember that people loved you when you wrote love songs, fer Robert Smith’s sake! It would be nice to hear one of my historically favorite band get back to that sometime. Or sometimes.

Download: James, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: The Psychedelic Furs, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: Erykah Badu, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: Erasure, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: The Zombies, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: Blind Melon, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: Noisettes, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download: Depeche Mode, “Sometimes” (mp3)
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Download all the songs in a handy ZIP file:

Download: “Some X 8″ (ZIP)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)