Songs of Love

… but unsurprisingly to anybody that knows me, it didn’t last. It’s been pretty hectic recently. I’ve finished college and am now on study leave, with 8 A level exams to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. I’ve had the leavers’ ball, birthday parties, and all manner of other distractions and as you might expect, the blog has been a little neglected. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to new music though; there have been some great albums out recently and my spotify has been in almost constant use recently, listening and relistening to the best of them. So, in the absence of songs every day for the last 3 weeks, here are the new albums I love right now:

The Divine Comedy – Bang Goes The Knighthood

Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill

Darwin Deez – Darwin Deez

And finally- The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method, not a new album but relatively new to me and one I’ve been listening to a lot recently.

While we’re on the subject of spotify- if you have it, I would really appreciate you sending me song suggestions. My username is a_blencowe, go go go! 

I like Ben Folds. He’s someone I wish I’d got into earlier, because now I find myself faced by an intimidatingly huge amount of music and no idea where to start with it. There are a few bands/artists I feel like this about, so hopefully over the course of this blog I’ll get to know all of their music a little bit better. Off the top of my head:

• Flaming Lips
• Duke Special
• The Divine Comedy
• Ben Folds
• Billy Bragg

So expect all of the above to turn up here from time to time :)

You may have noticed that I like covers. I wanted to find something really new today, so I didn’t let myself post a cover for the main song, but here are a couple of rather fantastic Bowie covers I’ve stumbled upon over the last few days. Enjoy! 

1. Of Montreal. 

2.  The Divine Comedy. My favourite of the two. I love Neil Hannon’s voice. 

My friend Luke told me to listen to Of Montreal, and I did. This wasn’t one of the songs he recommended but it’s the one I like the most so far.

I’ve seen Jim Bob (twitter: @mrjimbob ) a couple of times as part of Robin Ince shows. I really like him. He also has a book out called Storage Stories. I haven’t read it yet, but have heard only good things, so check it out. 

Also worth checking out the original non-acoustic version of this song by Carter USM (Jim Bob’s former band)

This is an iplayer link I’m afraid, so make sure you listen before Thursday or it will be gone forever (unless someone puts it on youtube, which would mean we could continue to enjoy it [not that I would condone such illegel activities ;)]) so get a wriggle on! The song is at around 11 minutes. Enjoy!

EDIT : the iplayer link is no longer available, but you can still listen here :)

I may post another song today as well. I feel like this one doesn’t quite count because I know it will be gone soon. 

I am now well and truly up to date, and have discovered some lovely music in the process! Just one more thing before I go to bed though! I’ve decided to make a spotify playlist of all the songs I’m choosing, to make it easier to look back on them. Obviously, if you don’t have spotify this won’t be of much interest to you, but if you do, feel free to have a look. I’m hoping the link will auto-update as I add new songs. Here it is: A Song A Day

More Belle & Sebastian. Obviously not a song I haven’t heard before, but definitely a version I haven’t heard before. This is what cover versions should be like. Beautiful.

This song makes me think of summer and sunshine, festivals and friends. I’m excited :D

Have you ever heard people talking about a band for ages and ages and not bothered to see what all the fuss is about? Well, I suggest you have a listen and find out. I just did, and I liked what I heard a lot.

I really like this song. Melancholy but beautiful.

I’m going to Latitude festival in July. My plan is to work my way through the line-up and decide who I like, that way I won’t miss anything great. I definitely won’t be missing Belle & Sebastian if I can help it :)