Seven Songs for the Week 5th Nov 25

The fun of streaming is being able to try stuff out. I read that this 1972 Moody Blues album was number one in the USA in 1972 for three weeks. I am curious about things that were once popular that seem to have left no trace. Maybe I was wrong about the Moodys, who I had always assumed were ponderous, lush, overwrought, hippie romanticists. So I gave this album a spin. It opens with this track, and you got to admit that listening to the first 30 seconds, you can't place the year. If I had been told that it was a record from 2025, I wouldn't have argued. Overall, it was a good opening track. Everything else? Ponderous, lush, overwrought, hippie stuff. Other albums? Same. So I like this one Moody Blues song.

I was wondering what Radiohead's opening reunion song would be. I thought Idioteque would be a good start. In the end it was their "latest hit" Let Down. In contrast to the Moody Blues, Kid A is 25 years old and it was popular and it left a trace. This track, which was positively abrasive in 2000 now sounds quite normal. I recommend checking out the two songs sample in it: Mild und Leise by Paul Lansky and Short Piece by Arthur Krieger.

I saw someone suggest this new song on Mastodon and I liked it.

Profound thinking from the debut album of 2025.

Some of the electronic bleeps that I've been listening to this week brought me to the Art of Noise. A group who were profoundly strange and present when I was a kid. I remember having the Max Headroom version of this track back in the day. Here it is without him.

"I am not going to buy this boxset" was what I said when this was announced. I dug out my 30+ year old Who Are You CD to ensure that I still did not like the album, and... it was ok. I listened to chunks of the box on streaming and there is gold in there - take this 1979 version of Music Must Change. On the original album, there are no drums, because the ailing Keith Moon couldn't handle 6/8 time apparently. On this rehearsal, Kenney Jones has arrived as drummer and has no problem getting into the song. On the original Who Are You album, Rod Argent (Zombies, Argent) adds piano to the title track, elevating it. Rod could have been a potent addition to the Who at this point in time - what could have been. Instead, John "Rabbit" Bundrick arrives as a live keyboardist and adds very Zombies-like organ to this take. Much better than the album version. The 1979 live version of Sister Disco also kicks the original album version into a cocked hat. So, I probably will buy this boxset. Oh well.

How was your Halloween? Watched this movie (Phantom of the Paradise) for the first time on Oct 30th and it's the bees knees - right in my wheelhouse. I'd known about it for years. Paul Williams at his most Paul Williams. This is the track that closes the movie. I could say more, but just go see it somehow. Go in blind, if you can.