Seven Songs For The Week #59 - 22nd May 24

I heard this on a streaming radio station a few weeks back and it has been in my head ever since.

Somebody pointed out online how this song was ripped off by Blue Monday. While you can certainly hear the similarity with that two bar run of semiquavered drums, anyone who’s programmed an old school drum machine knows how easy it is to set that up. Banging tune tough, and her dry vocals on the chorus sound great.

As I recall, it was a joke a few years ago on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast that if May 4th was Star Wars day, then May 19 should be Steely Day day. This makes perfect sense. I think Gaucho is my favourite Dan album. Controversial.

In the past year of doing these playlists, it crossed my mind to do a seven song playlist of really long songs. How long could you make a seven song playlist? I've already included Echoes on an earlier list. Dogs popped up this week and its 17 minutes really do fly by - it's so well put together. In many ways Dogs is the portal through which Pink Floyd cease being the post-Syd group with an uneasy consensus between Roger and Dave, and become a tool of Roger the autocrat. It starts with Dave singing and ends with Roger's voice, which would become the default sound of Floyd for the next few years.

I keep thinking I see Brendan Benson on the charts, but it's actually someone called Benson Boone who I'm seeing instead. I have no idea what Benson Boone sounds like, but I do know what Brendan Benson sounds like. He sounds like this.

Neil Young has put out something like 27 albums since 2010. He's not slowing down. This collection of early work with Crazy Horse is due out this summer, and this is the lead release from it. Maybe a Neil fan can explain why this is a thing now, and not part of the original Archives Vol.1 box set.

Q2 of 2024 has seen album releases from the big three. Swift, Lipa and Eilish. Now these things aren't a competition, but they also are a competition. Swift's album has stayed rooted at the number one spot in the US where Dua's album couldn't dislodge it and it's had a big drop in week two. Dua's album feels badly timed and incomplete - the big singles put out a little too far in advance, and they haven't been as ubiquitous as her previous songs. Meanwhile, in spite of its success, I don't think TTPD is attracting any new fans. Fortnight is a very slight song, IMO. Enter Billie Eilish.

Hit Me Hard and Soft is a very good album, and she's won! LUNCH is a big chunky hit, loveable from the off. This track struck me on first listen.