I was coming back from Sheffield on the train today, and watching a veronica mars on my archos (i'm still mourning the loss of that show, god knows what I will be like when Pushing Daisies has aired it's final episode)(oh and i'm at the point in year 2 where Veronica is pondering why IS Duncan visiting Meg at the hospital every day? I'm thrilled with the debut episode of Half Moon Investigations on CBBC, but really it hardly replaces my teen sleuth loss!) when I was struck by an overwhelming urge to listen to songs with amazing key changes. Because obviously I have no musical tastes whatsoever (and am quite proud of that), I instantly went to Pop Idol 2 winner Michelle McManus' quite ok ballad Meaning of Love and of course shrieky American Idol runner up Diana DeGarmo's Don't Cry Out Loud. Both quite satisfying, but ultimately doing nothing for my cred factor. Yet I needed to escape the fact that this week's transatlantic chart-topper is a cybertronic derivative pile of poo (yes, bah humbug etc) and that did it nicely. Until I came home, booted up the old laptop and was nearly knocked backwards by an incredible need to listen to some Annie Lennox. So I did....
Annie Lennox is one of those artists that is just a constant for me. I may not write as enthusiastically about her excellent music as I do, say Simon Curtis or The Feeling, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feature in my life quite often. I listened to the incredibly haunting Love Song For A Vampire as I read the last few pages of Twilight. No More I Love Yousseemed to be the perfect soundtrack to the end of the year as I gazed out of Ruth's window onto the white frosty fields littered with seemingly hazy silver trees. Thorn In My Sideseems to pop up on my mp3 player whenever work bugs me about something. Annie's sumptous voice never fails to soothe and please me. So, much in the way Leona Lewis made Run her own, Annie has put her own glorious stamp all over her cover of Ash's Shining Light (true story - my sister Charlotte once kissed the Ash drummer many years ago.)It's delightfully upbeat with some great hand clapping beats, a swoony backing vocal and perhaps Annie's most joyous song since she teamed up with Al Green for Put A Little Love In My Heart. Definitely the most gorgeous song of the new year, probably only to be challenged by Kelly Clarkson next week??
And now for something at the other end of the quality spectrum, but that delights me almost quite as much. God knows what this fantastic lady is called but her song is perhaps THE most bizarre thing I've heard this side of a Lily Allen demo. I must thank Phil Worrapolava for pointing it out to me. The whole thing is just amazingly bonkers. From the casio keyboard quality backing beat to the plinkity plonk piano, it still ends up being catchier than most r'n'b songs I know that have millions of pounds in production spent on them. Add to that the truly terrifying video with an almost lesbian kiss/headbut and a scary faced woman and really that would be enough for me to be obsessed. BUT!!!! It gets better. The middle 8 is a freaking VOCAL TRUMPET and is accompanied by the glorious image of nice Russian lady spitting her milk (nicely captured in slow mo on the video) which then drips down her face suggestively, like she accidentally took a nap in a gay club's dark room. And on top of this, the video is so cheap that it makes Antigone look like she had a budget! I don't know whether to be horrified or addicted, but I am intruiged...
