TRACKS OF THE WEEK 17/08/2014 - Courteeners, Alt-J, Ryan Adams, Congo Ashanti Roy and Pura Vida, Kiesza

Shellhunter:-
Kiesza - 'Hideaway' (2014)

Warning! Do not listen if you are an old fart! That's pretty much what I was thinking when some young pup put on KissFm on in the office. I like a bit of dance music but some of the stuff that gets the kids wild in clubs is beyond me. Saying that, every now and again a song creeps up and hits me. This track did exactly that and I was happy to say so in the office much to the surprise of my colleagues who I fight with to put on BBC6. Kiesza is a multi talented, Canadian dancer/musician who mainly dabbles in dance, house and electro. I later found out it went in straight at number 1 in the charts back in April, no mean feat in this manufactured pop idol age. It also makes me feel kind of smug that of all the songs that hit me, it was a chart topper!

London Scouser:-

Courteeners - 'How Good It Was' (2014)

Finally after what seems like an eternity it's back. The Premier League I mean, and before you ask me what has that got to do with music I'll tell you. Every week on the BBC website, former mustachioed legend Mark Lawrenson predicts the scores of this weeks games and pits his skills against a celeb. This week he is up against Liam, lead singer of Courteeners. As mentioned in a previous post I've been a fan for a while and am pleased to see they have a new album out on August 18th called 'Concrete Love'. This song is bang on form for them and I predict a win for them although they might have to settle for a mid-table finish.

Flycasual:-
Alt-J - 'Left Hand Free' (2014)


Triangles were top of the pops as my favourite shape for most of 2012 when Alt-J released their debut, An Awesome Wave. They have recently released three quick fire tracks in anticipation of their imminent 2nd album, This Is All Yours, the haunting 'Hunger of the Pine', 'Every Other Freckle' and the official single 'Left Hand Free'. The single is pretty unusual as it doesn't really sound like any of Alt-J's previous stuff (sounds a bit like The Bees to me) nevertheless despite the video looking like a phone ad, it's pretty catchy and had me humming it after a few listens. It may have apparently taken them only 20 minutes to write the song but it also suggests that they have their fingers firmly in different musical pies. So far so good for the difficult second album.

Sfw:- 
Ryan Adams - My Wrecking Ball (2014)


I am excited.  In fact I am frothing at the lips in anticipation of Mr Adams' album release next month.  My Wrecking Ball is more like classic RA.  A catchy hook littered with sadness all rolled up in X. In recent interviews he said that he scrapped an entire album that he recorded with Glyn Johns because it was "to sad".  Don't worry though, you can see here that he still has his dry sense of humour.

Old Pa's Corner :-
Congo Ashanti Roy and Pura Vida - 'Manuel Club' (2014)

This is the new album by Congo Ashanti Roy and Pura Vida and is called Step by Step (2014) and I just love it and I just can't stop playing it. It took me some time just to pass the first 2 tracks and it was a hard choice to choose from those. This is great old school reggae and must be about the best of the gendre around at the moment. Excellent stuff and a must hear.

Pura Vida are a Belgium reggae band and have teamed up with the legend that is Congo Ashanti Roy (Roydell Johnson)  of the fabulous Congos.

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