Young and Dumb - Everything But The Girl

After their successful dalliances with the dancefloor EBTG return to their earlier sound with this beautifully melancholy reflection on life's autumnal years. At 64 and 63 Tracey and Ben are a tad older than me but not by much, so I can relate to this track. Not that I'd want to be 17 again. Good grief, no. Despite the growing aches and pains I sure as heck wouldn't want to be a teen, especially not these days. Poor buggers don't stand a chance. 

Mad Eyed Screamer - The Creatures

How great is this track eh? Picked up a Best Of The Creatures CD last week and this is the one that kicks it all off. It seems pretty appropriate for a manic Friday afternoon too...

Fall Out - The Police

Before The Police hit the big time with their reggae pop/rock sound they released this punky little ditty in 1977, not long after Sting quit his job as a teacher. Education's loss and all that jazz...

Shakey Ground - The Temptations

This seems like a pretty appropriate track for what's going on in the world right now. Shakey Ground indeed...still, if we're going to get nuked we might as well have a funky soundtrack to dance to whilst we kiss our backsides goodbye. 

All Night Long - The Dave Clark Five

Another recent bargain CD buy and in amongst the 'hits and pieces' (see what I did there?) I came across this bonkers garage rock wig out. Who knew these dudes did stuff like this?!  

Two Shots of Happy One Shot of Sad - Matt Dusk

Heard this last night on a Canadian Verve Records promo CD and liked the noir-ish vibe. Apparently it was written by Bono and The Edge in tribute to Frank Sinatra and originally sung by daughter Nancy. 

Press Darlings - Adam and the Ants

Who was the first band that the Sex Pistols supported? The Damned? The Ramones? The Clash? Nah, Adam and the Ants. 

For a brief period Adam and the Ants were MASSIVE, I'm fairly sure they occupied three of the top 5 slots in the singles chart at one point and this was at a time when such things took some doing. Despite having his roots in punk Adam embraced the whole pop/celebrity thing and...well...sadly the press took against him and his music and it's been unfairly sidelined as a bit of an 80's novelty ever since. Listen to tracks like Press Darlings though and it's not a huge stretch to imagine Johnny Rotten snarling it out. Elsewhere there's a touch of Berlin era Bowie in tracks like Physical...

  ...see what I mean? 

PS: This post was prompted by picking up the rather fine Dandy Highwayman 2CD which was languishing in the rain in a box outside a local charity shop. I should report them to the RSPCCD (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to CDs). Thankfully after carefully removing and drying the soggy insert it's no worse for wear. Try treating an LP like that eh? CDs rule.