Well maybe military planning is putting it a bit strongly but having been away from commuting for both holiday and weather-related reasons for a wee while I have found my mind wandering at certain late-night, belly-full, slightly-tipsy moments as I half-listen to comfortably familiar family anecdotes, to which CDs I might put into my cleaned-out car for the upcoming January, frosty morning commutes over the Tipperary mountains.
Yes, I’m afraid I do think like this, almost looking forward to going back to work so I can listen to more than two minutes of uninterrupted music again. I can’t even manage to fit in a whole Beatles song at home over Christmas without having to open brand new toys (now THAT is something that requires military planning), fix slightly new toys or explain the rules to Qwirkle one more time.
So this short blog (mostly short because this is the last day of my holidays and ye can all feck off) will attempt to elucidate my ruminations (how about that!) on what music might make January driving seem a little less like, well, January driving.
So I think I’ll go for some never-fail-to cheer-me-up good music. These should raise my spirit-soaked spirit after Christmas time. Not that I might ever actually put them in the CD player because I know some of them off by heart but just having them beside me in the car makes me smile. You know the feeling when you look at a record and just the cover is enough to remind you of the entire album? Like the joke about the monks telling jokes (don’t ask…).
So, good mood album No.1 is Huey Lewis and the News “Sports”. This was the album just before they released Power of Love on the Back to the Future soundtrack but this has so many great upbeat numbers I think it’s still their best. Heart of Rock and Roll and the great I Want a New Drug stand out. Apparently I Want a New Drug was wanted for the Ghostbusters soundtrack but the film company didn’t like the lyrics so they commissioned Ray Parker Jr to do “something very similar” for his eventual theme song to the movie (I think law suits ensued if memory serves – then fast forward to Jedward singing it in X Factor and the insult to Huey and the boys is complete!) The News had a great guitar and sax player (Johnny Colla) who remained underrated for much of their career – they’re still going by the way so fair play to ’em! They recently brought out a new album “Plan B”, the title track of which is classic Huey (the rest, not so sure!)
Good mood album No.2 has to be the new album by Pendulum “In Silico”. These guys are just an insanely up tempo dance/DJ act that mix some real instruments into the beats to make music that will just make you punch the air repeatedly as you shout “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” to no-one in particular and mysteriously also make you want to drink lots of bottled water… ShowDown from this album is about as good as this music gets. They’re relatively new (i.e. for the purposes of this blog, not from the 70’s or 80’s!) and they blew Glastonbury away with their performance this year. Their guitarist plays a “Keytar” and nobody’s quite sure what the hell it is (it’s not one of those cheesey 80’s keyboards worn like a guitar, it’s much cooler than that 🙂 but it sounds good to me). Check this out if you liked the Prodigy back in the day or if hard acid house died too soon for you – I know that won’t really sell it too well but check it out for fun.
And last but not least, good mood album No. 3 must be Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly”. I’m proud to say I bought this album early in my musical journey and not, for once, influenced by my brothers or my mates or Larry Gogan himself. I just heard New Frontier one day (on a random TV show that showed the video no less) and went “yes please, can I have some more?”. Fagen was, and now is again, one of the dynamic and beautifully sarcastic duo that make up the mighty Steely Dan. But for me this album was the one that got me into Steely Dan retrospectively so when I hear it, it reminds me of that entire masterful catalogue also (nice!) Every track on this album is a laid-back classic and I can’t urge you to listen to it enough if you don’t know it.
I.G.Y., Maxine, Green Flower Street – ah yes, I’m looking forward to going back to work already… 🙂
Jim's Commute Blog 