Six Song Shuffle - February 29 2008

It's been a rough day and so I thought this would be a good way to end it. This is how it works: I slurped all my mp3s into Rhythmbox set it to shuffle and hit play. These are the first six that it spat out.

P J Harvey - C'mon Billy, from her album To Bring You My Love. This is Polly Jean at her best - dark, brooding and magnificent.

Billy Bragg - Between The Wars was a song I'll always associate with the Falkland's war. It may have been a coincidence, but this seemed to be big on TV music shows at the time Thatcher's task force was steaming towards the South Atlantic. Wouldn't it be nice to be between the wars rather than in them.

XTC - Love on a Farmboy's wages, oh my youth. Early 80s classic from a band from Swindon. Well somebody has to some from there. It has a railway museum as well, by the way. This pastoral ditty comes from the album Mummer. I just loved their early stuff and kept on buying their music.

Adele - Chasing Pavements from her new album 19. She sings like her shoes are too tight and with a slight cockney accent. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, to give her her full name; a Londoner with her roots in soul and jazz. Some of the arrangements on the album remind me of late sixties soul classics. She's touring this year and she's coming to a city not that far away. Might try and see her.

Gorillaz - Kids With Guns. Released as a double a-side with El Mañana in the UK this is a cheery little number. Gulp, has Noodle really been killed off?

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - No Dinero from the album Stranger Things. Brickell, a.k.a. Mrs Paul Simon, was once described as singing like Karen Carpenter and Janis Joplin all at once. This song has plenty of Joplin oomph. The group disbanded in 1990 and Stranger Things was their first album together in sixteen years. Their brand of Jam Rock seems to have stood the test of time.