The Best Of 2024 (Part 4)

I know I need a small vacation, but it don't look like rain. So here's one final batch of records I enjoyed this year, but not quite enough to get them into my Top 24 of 2024 (which starts on Wednesday). Interspersed with random lyrics from my head that nobody's bothered about identifying, but it keeps me happy. Without further ado, let's move before they raise the parking rate!

As mentioned just a couple of weeks back, I've been very much enjoying the work of Hannah and her Dad, in the band Hann. Up until very recently, it's all been singular releases through the camp of bands... then, at the last minute, Hann finally released their debut album. Too late for my Year End countdown, I'm afraid... though we really did try to make it.

Forever In A Glance is available digitally, or digitally with an accompanying lyric booklet. No CDs, because Hannah's from the post-CD generation, clearly. Which is a shame (Why do you use me? Try to confuse me?) because I'd have bought one.

More young ladies, although perhaps not that young since they've been making records as far back as 2004. The Veronicas come from Australia, and the track below got lodged in my head for a good part of the year with its anti-celebrity-glamour hook. You probably think this song is about you. 

The rest of the album wasn't bad either.

Slightly older (but a gentleman should never mention a lady's age) Eddi Reader returned to her Fairground Attraction roots this year and together with her original partner in crime, Mark Nevin, they threw their Lego in the lake, releasing their second full LP (only 36 years after the first one). And the great thing is, they haven't changed a bit... though clearly the world around them has. (Oh, has the world changed or have I changed?)

And finally, a Super Furry Animal. Because we can never have too many of them. Cry wolf, baby! Sadly, Gruff is estranged from his old pals these days. He must be a Bad Friend...

Listen up, Gruff - You've got to tolerate all those people that you hate!

24 albums from 2024 will now be shuffled into a loose order of preference in time to bore the pants of you all entertain you over the festive period. I'm about to lose control and I think I like it! 

Starting Wednesday. 

Title Fight #9: Jam After School

Welcome back to my appreciation of song titles that leap off the record sleeve and demand to be listened to. The songs themselves might not always live up to the hype, but they're usually worthy of at least a little consideration.

Diana Ross is clearly one very tough cookie - and not someone I'd get in a boxing ring with, since she has a history of taking few prisoners. Whatever personality flaws she may or may not possess, there's no denying the power of her musical legacy. The Supremes, for me at least, were supreme... and her solo years are full of gems too, with a little sifting. Title-wise, this is probably my favourite song she's performed on. It makes you wonder why a certain Manchester Miserablist never thought to cover it...

Diana Ross & The Supremes - Misery Makes Its Home In My Heart

Another seemingly indestructible woman from the world of pop is Skin from Skunk Anansie. She always looks like the type to knock you down as soon as look at you... though she also possesses a welcome self-awareness, as demonstrated below... 

Skunk Anansie - It Takes Blood And Guts To Be This Cool But I'm Still Just A Cliché

Makes you wonder if Skin was channeling the late Poly Styrene...

X-Ray Spex - I Am A Cliché

When it came to self-awareness, Poly was definitely ahead of the pack...

X-Ray Spex - I Am A Poseur 

...though you can take that self-deprecation shtick a little too far, Poly...

X-Ray Spex - I Can't Do Anything

Especially when, if we're talking about song titles, you go down in history as having written one of the absolute greats...

Resilience and determination are also on display from our next lady. Barbara Brown hailed from Memphis in the early 60s, signing a deal with Stax that really was a family affair - sisters Roberta, Betty and Maurice (?) were on backing vocals, while brothers Walter and Richard contributed to the songwriting. 

Barbara & The Browns - If I Can't Run To You, I'll Crawl 

Still in the southern States, but a few decades later, we find a lady called Keri Leigh, presumably helping clean the floor so that Barbara can crawl on it. I couldn't find much about Keri on the web of lies, but this track came from a collection I've been dipping into lately called The Last Soul Company: Malaco - A 30 Year Restrospective.

Keri Leigh - Here's Your Mop, Mr. Johnson

Back up to date - almost, because this is from Dry Cleaning's debut EP of 2019, though it's recently been remastered and made all sparkly. I hope you enjoy the wonderful stream-of-consciousness wordplay and deadpan vocals of Florence Cleopatra Shaw as much as I do. 

Imaginary hot romance with Daniel Day Lewis
Welcome to the county of Hampshire
Jam after school

Dry Cleaning - Jam After School

Here's another southern diva, a lady who's mostly known around these parts for warning you not to mess with her toot toot. Scratch below the surface, and Ms. LaSalle (real name: Ora Denise Allen) had an enviable career as a smooth soul chanteuse, songwriter, producer and record company boss. Here's a great little number from her back catalogue, and a title that raises all kinds of questions...

Denise LaSalle - Your Husband Is Cheating On Us

And finally, we have the return of a band who haven't made music together in 35 years. Back in the late 80s, they released one classic album, then started working on a second... which never really happened. A jumbled collection of b-sides and out-takes appeared in its place, and that was all she wrote. Lead singer Eddi Reader went off to a solo career, while guitarist Mark Nevin co-wrote Morrissey's most underappreciated album, Kill Uncle, and a bunch of other stuff he kept to himself. They finally appear to have patched up their differences though, and the result sounds as though they've never been away. Great title too...

 

Self-Help For Cynics #15: Perfect

It's got to be perfect
It's got to be worth it, yeah
Too many people take second best
But I won't take anything less
It's got to be, yeah
Perfect

Fairground Attraction - Perfect

I hate dealing with car repairs and mechanics. I always feel like they’re going to be patronising, supercilious and out to rip me off every chance they get. Unfortunately, due to the amount of mileage I do these days, my dealings with car repair “specialists” have increased… and any such encounter I can drive away from without a hole in my pocket or a bigger hole in my ego gives me cause for cheer. Actual turn up the radio, thump the steering wheel, whoop for joy jubilation. Survived another one! Got out with my wallet and my dignity (mostly) intact!  

There were bad times when my tank was running dry
And my machine couldn't shift into its gears
And on cold days it would stall
So I almost junked it all

The Good Rats - Mr. Mechanic

In her book Don’t Feed The Monkey Mind, Jennifer Shannon identifies three “assumptions” which our stressed out amygdala loves to accentuate. Last week I talked about Fear of Uncertainty… this week: Perfectionism.

The Orchids - Striving For The Lazy Perfection

I don’t think of myself as a perfectionist. I'm too lazy. Of Dr. Shannon’s three assumptions, this was the one I'd almost ruled out from the start. Until I read the chapter and realised that perfectionism goes hand in hand with something else which I am extremely familiar with: fear of failure. The expert explains…

While others find motivation from challenge, a higher purpose, a promised prize, or simply the joy of doing the thing itself, if you are a perfectionist, your motivation is fear of failing. Your mantra is: don’t screw it up! Only when you’ve completed the social interaction or task without making any mistakes will you be able to relax.

Skinny - Failure

This explains the whoop of joy I let out on escaping the maw of the mechanic, unscathed.

This also explains why I never asked a girl out in my teens, and only really stumbled into relationships in my 20s when the green light was showing and the welcome mat was thrown at my feet.

Chad & Jeremy - Teenage Failure

As I’ve grown older, I have learned to take more risks, step outside my comfort zone, force myself to flirt with danger if the prize was really worth having. That’s how I managed to get out of my old job… but I had to be backed into a corner by the firing squad to do it.

And this is the place where failure goes
If your dreams won't die
This is where all your hopes survive
If they're not a lie
This is where all the might-have-beens
Triumph and forgive
This is where all the star-crossed loves
Have the chance to live

Rupert Holmes - The Place Where Failure Goes

Dr. Shannon continues…

Perfectionists hedge their bets, only doing things they know they’ll be good at. If you do get saddled with something you aren’t good at, you may just put it off until the last minute, where you’ll have an excuse – not enough time – to be less than perfect.

Sound familiar? Or is it just me again?

Chip Taylor - Fuck All The Perfect People

The argument goes that really successful people achieve their goals because they’re unafraid of failure. They fall off the horse... then they get back on and try again. Eventually they get where they want to be. I’ve often argued that the reason I didn’t make it as a professional writer is that I didn’t push myself enough. Every rejection letter was a kick in the teeth. Many of my contemporaries who did succeed in that field lost all their teeth but just kept growing new ones. I don’t believe they were better writers than me. They were just better at recovering from a kicking, or as Jennifer Shannon puts it…

…relatively few high achievers expect perfectionism from themselves.

Just everyday problems
Find a way of bringin' you down
But if you want it bad enough
Find a way of turning it around
You find a way of turning it around

There's one thing that'll beat failing
That's trying
If anybody tells you different
They gotta be lying

Bobby Womack - There's One Thing That Beats Failing

A former colleague (notably more successful than me in most aspects of her life, but also a major screw-up in certain areas) used to swear by a popular self-help book of the late 80s / early 90s called Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway. She adopted the book’s title as her mantra and it appeared to serve her well. Cynical moi used to pour scorn on the very notion, but the more I read about the way our brain works against us, the more I’m coming to accept the wisdom in that mantra. 

Oh baby, here comes the fear again, oh-oh
The end is near again, oh-oh
A monkey's built a house on your back
You can't get anyone to come in the sack
And here comes another panic attack, oh
Here we go again

Pulp - The Fear

One final word from the good doctor…

When we allow for some risk, we give ourselves more choices and we prepare ourselves for when things go wrong. If we deny ourselves the privilege of being wrong or failing, we’ll be unable to take the risks that are necessary for meeting our personal goals. This is why, in addition to anxiety, perfectionism is associated with depression, procrastination, addiction and low self-esteem.

Failure hurts though. It’s not just a metaphorical kicking, it can feel as painful, as brutal, as any physical assault. I remember when I was applying for my current job. There was a moment when an obstacle was placed in my way which seemed insurmountable. All the hope I’d placed in this one opportunity, this lifeline escape from the mental misery of The Bad Place… and now it looked like it was all a pipe dream. I actually collapsed on the floor like I’d been punched in the stomach. I remember sitting there in abject despair… feeling actual physical pain.

I get knocked down... but I get up again

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Somehow though, I managed to pick myself up and try to find a solution. I still don’t know where I found that impetus. It doesn’t come naturally. Maybe for some people, you only get it when you hit rock bottom.

Failure is always the best way to learn,

Retracing your steps until you know,

Have no fear, your wounds will heal.

Saturday Snapshots #69 - The Answers

Steady on, now ladies of a certain age... if you're Looking Through The Eyes of Love this morning, now's not the time to become a Daydreamer. We have serious business here - namely, the answers to yesterday morning's Saturday Snapshots.

Very quick recap today as I feel proper done in on Saturday night, so no time for the usual shout-outs, I'm afraid, other than to say 'Welcome back, Lynchie' and apologise to Chris if this was a hard one. Every week somebody different says it's a hard one, so that must be variety, eclecticism or maybe I'm just running out of 'easy ones'.

If I Didn't Care, I'd wouldn't reveal the answers right now...



10. Inheriting the chocolate factory made him a millionaire... now all he needs is the perfect woman!

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

Millionaires are rich.

Remember: beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

9. New York card game presided over by Dylan & Steve.

Bob Dylan.

Steve Earle.

Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle

8. Frank & Cilla's children refuse to instruct disco partners.

Frank & Cilla would have...

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

7. Cool daddio, this would be a groovy place... if it wasn't for those chuffing chimps!

Cool daddio, are you digging my scene?

Not with blowing monkeys!

The Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene

6. A load of nutters love the rain.

10,000 Maniacs - Like The Weather

5. Throw away two-faced champions and switch on the idiot box.

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television (The Drug of the Nation)

4. Big beach lured by tasty chucky.

Giant Sand - Temptation of Egg

3. Use a crowbar to break into Peter Pan's house... but it might not topple easily.

Jimmy your way into Cliff's house...

Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Fall

2. Lost your valentine? Try the carousel.

Fairground Attraction - Find My Love

1. Enlarge General to solve cardiac problems.

Enlarge & General are both anagrams.

Al Green - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?



Cherish these songs until next Saturday. How Can I Be Sure you'll be back? Well, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do...

Hot 100 #60

A couple of fine 90s / 00s indie bands illustrate our feature this week as we reach one of those number with loads of great options...

Walter opened proceedings with this cheery lyrical offering from the Manics - Nostalgic Pushead…

One two three four five six seven eight

I am the raping sunglass gaze

Of sweating man and escort agencies

60's alienation the anthem of care

Bet you feel better about your day already.

Next came The Swede who suggested a bit of early Elton John (can't go wrong with early Elton John):

Elton John - Sixty Years On

The Swede also reminded us of a song that got a mention last week due to one of its b-sides…

Sixty Minute Man' by Billy Ward & The Dominoes

That's another of those song that claims to be the first rock 'n' roll record ever (there are hundreds of them). Brian seconded The Swede's suggestion... and Alyson thirded it. But I swore no more peer pressure this week.

The Swede also directed us back to the aforementioned Bonnie Prince Billy' cover... "or preferably the first version I ever heard of the song by The Trammps - discotastic!" I'll throw in this country version by Roberta Lee & Hardrock Gunter from my own collection. I'm sure there are many more. (You may prefer Rigid Digit's suggestion of Ivor Biggun's version... or maybe not.)

Finally, The Swede wondered, "lyrically, how about 'Glam Racket' by The Fall?"

You post out sixty-page computer printouts on the end of forests,

All the above will come back to you and confirm you as a damn pest

Great opening line to that one too. If Mark E. Smith tells you to stop eating all that chocolate... well, I reckon it's time to start the diet.

Lynchie was up next, with one of those songs that just keeps giving to this feature...

The Incredible String Band - Way Back in the 1960s

(I'm gonna have to use that as a Grumpy Old Man song very soon.)

And then this bluesy gem...

Jimmy Reed - Where Can You Be

Ev'ry 60 seconds, of ev'ry minute
Ev'ry 60 minutes, of the hour
Ev'ry twenty-four hours of the day
I just sit a-round an' pray.

Jim then sent us these two suggestions, all the way from Dubai...

Audio Deluxe - 60 Seconds

Tight Fit - Back to the 60s

(Guess which of those I preferred. I know. I need to get a life.)

And then Jim remembered this old favourite, getting its second mention on this feature... with a third still to come...

Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!

From Dubai to Canada next, welcoming new player Douglas McLaren, who hit the ground running with these fine suggestions...

As a Canadian, may I suggest Gowan - 60 Second Nightmare?

Ah, gowan then. (See what I did there?)

Or to dig into lyrics, my Scottish heritage prompts me to suggest

Fairground Attraction - Mystery Train.

Train arrive, sixty minutes gone
Whoo-ooh train arrive, sixty minutes gone
Well I ain't seen my baby, he's been gone so long

We're always ready for a bit of Eddi round these parts. Thanks, Douglas.

Alyson then came back with two more...

60 Miles An Hour by New Order and Sixty Mile Smile by 3 Colours Red, the first of which breaks my No New Order rule, while the second reminded me how much I liked 3 Colours Red for about 5 minutes back in the day.

Once Rol's No New Order rule had been broken, it seems only right that Rigid Digit comes along to break Rol's other big rule... No U2.

U2 - Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come

More of Bono's God Complex there, if you ask me.

Much more palatable was RD's second suggestion...

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my backs a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile of line

Finally from you guys this week, Martin got very excited...

Wahey, I get to pitch a song by The Vapors - 60 Second Interval (live, studio).

That would have been one of my suggestions, but not the winner... because a quick trawl through my own music library produced loads of contenders...

Kenickie - 60s Bitch

The Dead Weather - 60 Feet Tall

America - 1960

Jeff Rosenstock - Pietro, 60 Years Old (Could have been one of my < 40 Seconds Songs)

Neil Young - Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero, Pt 1)

Black Box Recorder - Jackie 60

Rose McDowell - Sixty Cowboys

My Top Three for this week though goes like this...

3. The Indelicates - Julia, We Don't Live In The 60s

"We've never had it so good!"

2. Death Cab For Cutie - 60 & Punk

Already featured here as one of my 2018 contenders.

This week's winner was chosen as a rebuttal to all those many, many posts I write about growing older, sharing my Mid-Life Crisis with you all. It might also cheer up those of you who are a good few years older than me... or perhaps not, if you listen too closely.

Nils Lofgren - 60 Is The New 18



There's an obvious winner for next week in my head... and a less obvious runner-up. I'll be interested to see what you can come up with for 59 though...

My Top Ten Fairground Songs

Roll up, roll up - for all the fun of the fair!

(But if you're looking for songs about fairground rides, come back next week.)


10. White Lies - Farewell To The Fairground

The rides aren't working anymore, so the White Lies are packing up and going home.

9. Half Man Half Biscuit - Totnes Bickering Fair

So much for your journey of self-discovery
You had to cut it short, forgot your credit card
The decree nisi came through this morning
And I just called to say
I’m gonna feed our children non-organic food
I’m gonna feed our children non-organic food
I’m gonna feed our children non-organic food
And with the money saved take ‘em to the zoo

OK, not actually about a fairground - just the argumentative acrimony of a marriage gone bad. What it lacks in candyfloss and waltzers, it makes up for in its closing line...

Not long now before lollipop men are called Darren

8. John Mellencamp - County Fair

Hey all you suckers
I heard a fat woman say
Come on in for fifty cents
You can stay in here all day
So I took a chance
I went inside
Wasn't much there to see
So I asked her for my money back
And she just smiled at me...

This ends up being the worst fifty cents John ever spent...

See also County Fair by The Beach Boys for a somewhat happier tale. (Nobody gets stabbed.)

7. Pulp - Fairground

Very early Pulp... from 1986.

Yes, they were making records back then... and even earlier.

Guitarist Russell Senior sings / narrates this freakish fairground... though you can hear Jarvis barking "roll up, roll up" if you stick with it.

6. Fairground Attraction - Fairground Attraction

My "Top Ten Eponymous Songs" is a work in progress...

5. Saint Etienne - Heading For The Fair

Sarah Cracknell sends our hearts spinning...

My mama said don't go
There's nothing for you there
I stroll across the road
I'm heading for the fair
The music, endless sound
Of candy floss and love...

4. Roy Orbison - The Comedians

Elvis Costello strands Roy alone at the top of a ferris wheel, forcing him to watch as his girl does the dirty on him below. Comedy and tragedy: The Big O at his best.

3. Aimee Mann - Fifty Years After The Fair

Not about a fairground as such, unless you count the New York World's Fair of 1939... however, too amazing a song to leave off the list. If you've never heard Aimee's debut album, Whatever... treat yourself.

2. Bruce Springsteen - 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

I make no apologies for having featured this here before... I'll probably feature it here again. It is a tune of sublime beauty

And me I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades
Bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where
They all promise to unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And he kept me spinnin', I didn't think I'd ever get off

1. The Smiths - Rusholme Ruffians

One of their finest, with Johnny borrowing liberally from (Marie's The Name Of) His Latest Flame.

The last night of the fair
By the big wheel generator
A boy is stabbed
And his money is grabbed
And the air hangs heavy like a dulling whine

Morrissey, naturally, walks home alone... but his faith in love is still devout.



Ten fairground attractions... but which do you consider perfect?