Got it Covered: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Original video located here. Accessed 20th August 2012

Song title: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Artist: Saint Etienne

Originally Done By: Neil Young

Year: 1991

Why I like this song:

Truly an astonishing cover: Granted the song is pretty good on it's own but here it's the dance treatment and it becomes something else entirely. 
Somehow I get the impression that this was the moment that dance music announced itself: By reworking one of the best-selling and well-regarded artists of the seventies. 
Sure the cover was clearly made out of admiration for that era but it's a strategy that paid off - and one that has been replicated many times since.

Classics: Communication Breakdown

Original video located here. Accessed 10th July 2020

Song title: Communication Breakdown

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Year: 1969

Why I like this song:

Lately I've been listening to Led Zeppelin's first album. 
Not much I can say really: It's aged very little and still hits hard, even decades later.
And, dare I say it, the riffs still put a lot of bands that have emerged since to shame. 

Choon of the Month: Be There

Original video located here. Accessed 13th August 2012

Song title: Be There

Artist: YesYou

Year: 2012

Why I like this song:

A pretty sounding song that seems a great match for the warmer months. Just as well spring is on it's way...

Nineties Revisited: Nigel

Original video located here. Accessed 8th January 2024

Song title: Nigel

Artist: Mental As Anything

Year: 1995

Why I like this song:

Recently I got a hold of the Mental As Anything album Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

If I recall correctly this was a big comeback album: After five years away the Mentals hit back with a big seller of an album. Well, I've had a look at their previous stuff so how would they fare in the middle of the nineties?

Well it has the fun and the humour that is commonplace with the Mentals but two things stand out for me: First, it seems more raw and less production heavy than previous albums. One might think that they were going with the trends of the time but, strangely, it works. It sounds less like a midlife crisis and more a band taking their own spin on what the kids were doing. 
And second, Greedy seems sidelined with two songs, of the twelve present, to his name. Odd given his status as a hitmaker. Was this an attempt by the Mentals to distance themselves from their eighties success?

Still it's a great album and a real surprise from the Mentals, proving they are still capable of pumping out solid songs even in decade that surely would've rendered them obsolete. 

Nineties Revisited: Midlife Crisis

Original video located here. Accessed 24th February 2014

Song title: Midlife Crisis

Artist: Faith No More

Year: 1992

Why I like this song:

Once again, I come across an album I've been meaning to listen to but it's only now I'm getting around to listening to it. 
In this case, it's Angel Dust: commonly regarded as Faith No More's masterwork. 

In all honesty, to approach a Faith No More album is something of a gamble: Sure they have big hits but they don't exactly represent the album as a whole. Indeed, teenaged me got Album of the Year on the back of it's singles (Ashes to Ashes and Last Cup of Sorrow) but the rest of the album caught me very much off guard. Could it happen again?

Well the experience of Album of the Year informed me of what to expect and yes, there is blend of the metal and the bizarre. However! This album is still a gem and is appealing in it's unpredictable nature.
And hey, unpredictable is fine by me. In addition, I have to give credit to Faith No More for deliberately going against the grain in coming up this album, in defiance of the critics and the punters. 

Also, a few weeks ago I turned thirty. Looks like I have another decade to go...

The Asian Connection: HT

Original video located here. Accessed 20th August 2019

Song title: HT

Artist: Tsuneo Imahori

Year: 1998

Why I like this song:

Now that's how you do an opening.
It may be criminally short (is there an extended version available somewhere?) but it still rocks hard and certainly sells the anime it's announcing (that being Trigun).