Well, to kick off the week, here is a decidedly unpretentious look at some of the less high brow things I enjoy.

I mentioned this, didn’t I? Ah well, I’m sucker for a catchy tune, I guess. There’s also something quite happy about a load of people from Denmark doing pop, in English, better than most English bands and, get this, they’re writing it themselves! Incidentally, the video above is an alternative one (much more rough and with some interesting blue screen) which I prefer, mostly due to the slightly rawer sound and the better riff. The newer, slicker version can be found here.  Incidentally, lead singer Stine Bramsen was most enjoyable to watch alongside Jack Dee on the last series of Buzzcocks, if you’re wondering where you’ve seen her before.

The next song doesn’t require me to force a youtube video upon you: if you’ve never heard The Lightning Seeds’ Three Lions, you certainly didn’t grow up in the 90’s England. It’s a testament to the genius of the song as a rabble rousing football chant that it still hasn’t been surpassed over a decade later: the catchy tune, simple lyrics, even the suspect singing from David Baddiel. Slightly saddening is that we haven’t yet bought Football home but, I’m sure the day we do, this will be blared out once again.

Next up on the list – and there’s definitely a euro centric theme here – is Eiffel 65’s Blue. It’s here because it was a bit of a hit at the time (I was 9!) back when I would watch Top of the Pops every Friday. I still have the cassette of Now 44, which gives an insight into the rest of the junk that was floating around at the time. Unlike some, I never liked bands like S Club 7, who must have thought they were early front runners for world’s most stupidly named band (until the likes of the Pigeon Detectives came along) before finding out they failed at that too. Refreshingly, around the same time I remember very much enjoying Bloodhound Gang’s The Bad Touch. Listening to the lyrics today, I’m sure my younger self had only an inkling of the scale of the smut dripping from every line, which makes it slightly more amusing.

This one is not so much a guilty pleasure, as a completely different genre of song. You can file away with my likes of most of Eric Idle’s clever little ditties, but I thought I’d draw attention to it. Anyone as familiar as I am with Monty Python will recognise Neil Innes, who worked much with the Pythons (Sir Robin’s minstrels, anyone?) but I had actually come across this song many years before I had even heard of the comedy troup: two boys in the year above at my prep school used to sing this song, I remember them doing it as a duet a number of times and I always liked it, especially the clever little turn of phrase at the end.

[UPDATE]: They won’t let me embed any of her videos, silly people. Just click above to get the full joy that is Dido’s Hunter.

Hmm, I knew I wouldn’t get away without mentioning this. I was a big fan of this song, and indeed both albums that she released around that time, ever since I’d seen the likes of Stan: I can even remember singing along to it in a Latin lesson once after my teacher had started it playing on the computer. There was a slightly sombre, moody edge to her songs that I enjoyed. I wondered about picking up her latest, then thought against it. On the subject of slightly depressing music, this was genius, and still is.

I picked up Green Day’s American Idiot when it first came out. It’s not an album that I especially go back to, which is a bit sad when I remember how much I enjoyed it. I think, however, the album was over played and, all of a sudden, was very popular with a group of people several years my junior. Like the music lover at a Foal’s gig, I felt like I was the only one who liked the music, rather than just following the latest audio trend. Consequently, I’ve shunned it since, which is perhaps a pity. Jesus of Suburbia is still a favourite, I suppose.

Two shockers here, so perhaps I’ll keep to few words. The first is the much beaten (at least verbally) James Blunt. Like the last, this was a party I reached well before the masses. Blunt’s slowburning hit included High, which had been a free download on iTunes: I immediately lapped up the song, enjoyed it quite a bit and bought the rest of the album. I still think it is very good for what it is trying to be and, as such, it’s a shame that it has become the source of far too many a cheap laugh, not least of all on the Now Show. There are much worse evils in the world. The second is the Hoosiers Worried about Ray and possibly Worst Case Scenario. They may not be “cool”, but they can put together a catchy song.

Finally, and I realise now that I have quite a few skeletons in this cupboard, we have on of my sister’s albums. Yes, I’m sorry. I must say, I don’t like the whole thing, but there are aome pretty decent moments on the album. And they don’t take themselves too seriously.

The scary thing is, I’ve almost certainly missed some off. Anyway, catch you later: groups calls.

In Groot-Brittannië kan niemand nog om The Hoosiers heen. Vorig jaar verscheen hun album “The Trick To Life”. Dit album stond op 1 in the Charts en wordt binnenkort bekroond met dubbel platinum.

Uit dit album kwamen hun twee hitsingles ‘Goodbye Mr A’ en ‘Worried About Ray’. ‘Worried about ray’ werd in Londen genomineerd als single van het jaar voor de Brit Awards 2008, dit nummer is in België hun nieuwe radiosingle. Het album komt bij ons uit op 17 maart.
Op 16 maart kan je hen al aan het werk zien in Vorst Nationaal als het voorprogramma van James Blunt.

It’s that special Award-dominated time of year again, and the next load of nominees to be announced on this side of the Atlantic are for the Brit Awards 2008.

Made up of a few fan-voted awards and a bunch of record industry suits-voted awards, there are debates over the meaningfulness of the Brits, but it’s more about the evening’s performances and dresses than the actual awards, right?!

There are some great nominees this year, but all I can say is: COME ON TAKE THAT!!!! The show will air on Feb 20th…

Nominees:

Male Solo Artist:

Jamie T

Mark Ronson

Mika

Newton Faulkner

Richard Hawley

Female Solo Artist:

Bat For Lashes

Kate Nash

Kt Tunstall

Leona Lewis

PJ Harvey

Group:

Arctic Monkeys

Editors

Girls Aloud

Kaiser Chiefs

Take That

British Album:

Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare

Leona Lewis – Spirit

Mark Ronson – Version

Mika – Life In Cartoon Motion

Take That – Beautiful World

Thanks to Sonja DaA!

Jan 30th 2008:

Stupid Hoosiers! They’ve disabled the embedding!

Really, we hate them now, but if you really wanna see them you can find them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCm6YHU76q0