It Is Dangerously High

Umlaut, "Winter Coat" (demo) - As someone who likes to consume music primarily on his iPod, I have to say that I really hate the whole MySpace revolution; it actually makes it more infuriating to kindasorta have unfettered access to a song than to just know that you can't get at it at all even though it exists. I mean, I must have played "Winter Coat" a thousand times in the last week through the MySpace page of the now-defunct Umlaut, but really now - this is obviously the kind of song that an indie pop dork like me needs to be able at the flick of a finger in order to really get the most out of it. It is, full-stop, one of the very best examples of lighter indie guitar pop from 2005, and I say that knowing that I'm damning it with faint praise a little bit (2005 was a better year than you might think for morose, doomed indie pop, but the sunny side of the street's pretty much been empty since Good Shoes dropped "Small Town Girl") but damn the torpedoes, this is good enough to be the Great Lost Libertines B-Side - consciously indie-as-fuck ("hey! let's try to use bridges instead of choruses!" "yeah, and let's throw a clapping part in there too!"), but also earnestly enthusiastic for the cliches it rolls out, not to mention ENORMOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ALL AROUND. And of course, massive bonus points for the keyboard intro - I guess "Greensleeves" is kinda played out by this point. I mean, seriously - does any of this sound like stuff that should be consumed exclusively in front of a computer? (Click here to buy the single for "Winter Coat" from HMV)

Mainline, "Black Honey" (Who Made Who mix) - Yeah, so the Who Made Who album turned out to be nowhere near as good as the singles had me hoping it might be; fortunately, there are thousands and thousands of worse things on this earth than being this year's model of the Rapture. The secret, if you want to call it that, is that you really do have to put out killer singles, and this absolutely qualifies; if WMW's cover of "Satisfaction" is their "House of Jealous Lovers", then this remix of "Black Honey" is at least their take on "I Need Your Love"
- it's not a gimmicky song and as a result can't possibly be as much fun, but it works all the better on the dancefloor as a direct result of it. Proof positive that you don't need a cowbell to have an idiotically good jumparoundy time - not that I'd ever turn one down, mind you. (Click here to buy the "Black Honey" single from HMV)

ELSEWHERE
- So I didn't end up posting anything yesterday because I set aside the afternoon to work on a big wrap-up for 2005 (and I do mean big - the working title was "25 Things That Kept The Gun Out Of My Mouth", so multiply the amount of rambling in this post by twelve point five for a good idea of how much of your time I was planning on wasting), which of course went nowhere very, very slowly before I just gave up on it. In its place, today and tomorrow I'll go ahead and throw in my top-ten lists, starting today with albums:

10. The Guillemots, I Saw Such Things In My Sleep EP
9. Pendulum, Hold Your Colour
8. Akron/Family & Angels of Light, s/t split
7. New Order, Waiting For The Siren's Call
6. Kanye West, Late Registration
5. Kelley Polar, Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
4. Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll
3. Vashti Bunyan, Lookaftering
2. Rachel Stevens, Come And Get It
1. Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, The Days of Mars (link goes to an overlong [yet still accurate, goddammit] review I submitted to Stylus magazine which never ended up getting published - yes, let us all bear witness to my shameful pride, or prideful shame, or etc.)

Tomorrow: singles.

- Oh, and a quick heads-up: I'm going to be going home (well, to Louisiana, anyway) all next week, so I've enlisted a few people to pinch-hit in my absence. YEW HAVE BEEN WARNT.