My Friends Don't Know The Way

Lisa Brown, "What's That Sound?" - I forget whether or not I've ever mentioned on here that Blondie is my favorite group of all time (which they are), but if I haven't, then I probably haven't ever mentioned that "Rapture" is probably my least-favorite of their hits (which it is, with or without Debbie Harry inadvertantly embarassing her grandchildren for years to come). So of course, being predictable as I am, I seem to have fallen ass over teakettle in love with Lisa Brown's debut single "What's That Sound" in spite of the fact that it appropriates "Rapture" with roughly as much propriety as Daft Punk showed to Breakwater - I know, I know, I should have seen it coming too.

What I want to talk about, although I have zero confidence that I'll be able to find a way to do so, is the fact that this sounds like at least as much of a breakout hit waiting to happen as "Take Me Out". Admittedly, I hold "Take Me Out" in roughly the same regard as "Rapture", but even a hater like me can't ignore what made it so infernally inescapable: unlike, say, "Banquet" or "Hounds of Love", it is absolutely not a tour-de-force. That's not to say that there aren't great parts in it, mind you (to say nothing of how many great parts there are in "What's That Sound" - exhibits one through two hundred and forty five being all the awesome cascading stuff going on in the bridges and at the tail end of the choruses), but at the end of the day, all that stuff's just icing on the all the smirkingly assured confidence bleeding through the bassline and the chorus. I sure hope my friends end up liking this song, because I'm about to spend large wads of 2006 putting it on every party mix CD I burn. Somehow, I seriously doubt that I'll be the only one doing that. (Click here to buy the "What's That Sound" single from the label, High Voltage)

The Silures, "21 Ghosts" - I forget whether this was the first song I ever downloaded from Fluxblog or whether I'd copped LCD's "Yeah" or the Rocks' "I Won't Need You When You're Dead" before then, but either way, I've definitely had it for a while and it definitely still rocks just as hard as it did the first time. And I do mean "rocks" - at the risk of quoting an email I sent out to a bunch of my friends earlier this year, "21 Ghosts" may well be the most stupefying jump-around-like-an-idiot hammer-of-the-gods not-actually-a-rock song I've ever heard in my life, with the possible exception of a certain song dedicated to determining the placement of bitches on one's 99-strong list of problems. Honestly, I feel a little funny even giving credit to Pascal "Vitalic" Arbenz (one-half of the Silures along with Linda Lamb) for this one simply because it out-rocks everything he's ever done, no small feat considering we're talking about motherfucking VITALIC here. I'm thinking that this must have just been a lightning-in-a-bottle moment; all I can say is thank Jebus someone had a bottle handy. (The Silures All You Can Eat EP, from which "21 Ghosts" was taken, is unfortunately long gone. However, "21 Ghosts" also closes out Richard X's unbelievably perfect Back To Mine mix, which still remains (1) my favorite album full-stop of 2004, (2) my favorite mix CD ever, and (3) one of my very favorite CDs that I own. Click here to buy a copy from Amazon.co.uk; I cannot possibly reccomend it strenuously enough.)

ELSEWHERE
- And to round things off, here's my top ten singles of the year. Links go to any postings I did on any of these songs; I also decided to say fuck it and reupload them so's you can git at 'em if'n y'ain't done so.

10. Jim Reid, "Song For A Secret" (link)
9. The Killers, "Mr. Brightside" (Thin White Duke remix)
8. The Revelations, "You're The Loser" (link)
7. The Shortwave Set, "Is It Any Wonder?"
6. The Guillemots, "Who Left The Lights Off, Baby?" (link)
5. Alexis Strum, "Nothing Good About This Goodbye"
4. White Rose Movement, "Love Is A Number"
3. Three Six Mafia, "Stay Fly" (feat. Young Buck, 8ball, MJG)
2. Havana Guns, "She Always Goes Down" (link)
1. Rachel Stevens, "Crazy Boys" (link)

- Finally, plz to let me be a big sloppy bitch for a second and say thanks to everyone who's been stopping by ; this site may still be insanely tiny, but that doesn't mean it hasn't gotten way bigger than I ever thought it would, and that makes me happy. In the pants. NO! Well, okay, not just in the pants.

But seriously, thanks to one and all, and a merry Festivus to you 'n your'n. See you in a couple of days, and in the meantime, enjoy next week's guest posts.